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SKETCH 

OF  THE  LIFE  AND  PUBLIC   SERVICES 


HON.  JAMES  HILLHOUSE 


OF   NEW   HAVEN. 


BT 


Rev.    LEONARD    BACON,    D.  D. 

ii 


(From   Baknahd's  American   Journal  of   Education.) 


NEW    HAVEN. 

1860. 


^#^ 


"JAMES    HILLHOUSE,. 

THE    STATESMAN,    THE    PATRIOT,    THE    CHRISTIAN, 

BORN    OCT.    2],  1754, 

DIED    DEC.  29,  1832. 


HE    LIVES    IN    THE    AFFECTIONS    OF  HIS   COUNTRYMEN, 
AND    HIS    DEEDS    ARE    HIS   MONUMENT." 


JAMES    HILLHOUSE 


James  HillHouse,  the  indefatigable  "nursing  father,"  and 
administrator  of  the  School  Fund  of  Connecticut,  for  fifty  years 
treasurer  of  Yale  College,  and  throughout  a  long  and  eventful 
life  a  beautiful,  example  of  the  public  spirited  citizen  in  a  repub- 
lic, was  born  on  the  20th  of  October,  1754,  in  Montville. 

The  name  of  Hillhouse  is  that  of  an  ancient  and  honorable 
family  in  the  North  of  Ireland.  More  than  two  hundred  years 
ago,  the  family  seats,  with  estates  valued  at  more  than  two  thou- 
sand pounds  sterling  yearly,  were  on  the  shores  of  Lough  Foyle, 
near  Londonderry  ;  and  though  the  name  has  therebecome  extinct, 
the  ancient  estates,  particularly  Artikelly  and  Free  Hall,  are  still 
held  by  descendants  of  the  family  in  the  female  line. 

Early  in  the  last  century,  the  Rev.  James  Hillhouse  came  to 
New  England.  His  father,  John  Hillhouse,  of  Free  Hall,  was 
the  eldest  son  of  Abraham  Hillhouse,  who  resided  at  Artikelly.* 
He  "  had  his  education,  and  commenced  Master  of  Arts  at  the 
famous  university  of  Glasgow,  in  Scotland  ;  and  afterward  read 
Divinity  at  the  said  college  under  the  care  of  Mr.  Simson,  then 
professor  of  Divinity  there."  He  was  ordained  by  the  Presbytery 
of  Londonderry,  in  Ireland,  and  appears  to  have  resided  at  or  near 
the  ancestral  home  till,  by  the  death  of  his  father  in  1716,  the 
estate  descended  to  his  elder  brother  Abraham.  His  mother  died 
a  fe.w  months  later,  in  January,  1717.  Not  long  after  that  date 
he  came  to  seek  a  home  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  He  is  sup- 
posed to  have  come  with  those  other  Presbyterian  emigrants  from 
the  North  of  Ireland,  who,  in  1719,  established  themselves  in  New 
Hampshire,  where  the  towns  of  Derry  and  Londonderry,  and  the 


*  The  name  of  Hillhouse  is  connected  with  the  memorable  defence  of  Deny 
against  the  forces  of  James  11.  James  Hillhouse,  a  brother  of  John,  was  one  of 
the  commissioners  to  treat  with  Lord  Mountjoy,  and  was  Mayor  of  Londonderry 
in  1693.  Abraham  Hillhouse  was  among  the  signers  of  an  address  to  King  Wil- 
liam and  Queen  Mary,  on  the  ''occasion  of  the  relief  of  the  siege  of  Londonderry, 
dated  29th  July,  1669. 


6       '  .>'■;,„•'.?';  .l-^MES  KILLHOUSE. 

Londonderry  Presbytery,  as  well  as  many  Scotch-Irish  family 
names,  are  the  permanent  memorials  of  that  migration.  At  the 
close  of  the  year  1720,  we  find  him  in  Boston  cotnmitting  to  the 
press  a  "  sernion"  which  he  had  composed,  nearly  four  years  be- 
fore, on  the  occasion  of  his  mother's  death,  but  which  does  not 
purport  to  have  been  preached.  This  work  (for  though  entitled  a 
sermon,  it  is  more  properly  a  treatise  in  a  volume  of  more  than 
one  hundred  and  forty  pages,)  was  introduced  to  the  reader  in  a 
preface  from  Increase  and  Cotton  Mather,  who  speak  of  the  author 
as  "  a  valuable  minister,"  and  again  as  "  a  worthy,  hopeful  young 
minister"  "lately  arrived  in  America."  He  found  employment 
in  the  newly  instituted  second  parish  of  New  London,  in  Connec- 
ticut, (now  the  town  of  Montville)  and  in  1722  was  duly  inducted 
into  the  office  of  pastor  in  the  church  there.  At  that  place  he 
died  in  1740,  aged  53. 

The  wife  of  the  Rev.  James  Hillhouse  was  Mary,  the  daughter 
of  Daniel  Fitch,  and  was  descended  from  ancestors  eminent  in  the 
earliest  history  of  Connecticut.  Her  paternal  grandfather  was  the 
Rev.  James  Fitch,  who  came  from  England  at  the  age  of  sixteen 
years,  in  1638,  and  having  received  his  education  for  the  ministry 
under  the  teaching  of  Hooker  and  Stone,  in  the  church  at  Hart- 
ford,  was  pastor  of  the  church  in  Saybrook  at  its  institution  in 
1646.  Fourteen  years  afterward,  he  removed  with  the  body  of 
his  people  to  begin  the  settlement  of  Norwich,  where  he  served 
many  years  highly  honored,  not  only  by  his  own  church,  but  in 
the  colony  at  large.  Her  father's  mother  was  Priscilla  Mason,  a 
daughter  of  Captain  John  Mason,  the  military  chief  of  the  colo- 
nists on  the  Connecticut,  and  the  hero  of  the  Pequot  war  in  1637, 
— a  man  distinguished  by  almost  every  trust  which  the  young 
republic  could  bestow.  That  she  was  endowed  by  nature  with 
superior  mental  gifts,  and  was  a  thoroughly  educated  woman,  not- 
withstanding the  limited  advantages  for  female  education  in  her 
day,  is  not  a  mere  tradition,  but  is  sufficiently  attested  by  letters 
of  hers  which  are  still  preserved  among  her  descendants. 

In  the  first  generation  of  descendants  from  the  pastor  of  Mont- 
ville, the  nanoe  of  Hillhouse  was  borne  only  by  his  two  sons, 
William,  and  James  Abrahann.  The  first  wa^  born  in  1728.  He 
lived  and  died  on  the  paternal  estate  at  Montville,  greatly  trusted 
and  honored  by  his  fellow  citizens.  When  he  was  twenty-two 
years  of  age  he  married  Sarah  Griswold,  who  was  a  sister  of  the 
first  Governor  Griswold.  At  the  age  of  twenty -seven  he  repre- 
sented his  native  town  of  New  London  in  the  legislature  of  what 


JAMES  HII.LHOUSE.  7 

was  then  His  Majesty's  colony  of  Connecticut.  He  was  continued 
in  that  trust  by  semi-annual  elections,  till,  (in  1785)  having  become 
honorably  known  throughout  the  state,  he  was  chosen  an  Assist- 
ant, or  member  of  the  Council,  then  commonly  called  "  the  Upper 
House."*  Thus  he  served  in  one  hundred  and  six  semi-annual 
legislatures.  Meanwhile  he  was  also  for  many  years  a  judge  of 
the  County  Court.  Nor  did  his  civil  dignities  and  duties  excuse 
him  from  military  service.  He  was  major  in  the  second  regiment 
of  cavalry  raised  by  Connecticut  for  service  in  the  war  of  the 
revolution.  At  the  age  of  eighty,  in  the  full  possession  of  his 
powers,  he  declined  a  reelection  to  the  Council,  and  withdrew  from 
public  life.  Even  to  that  advanced  age  his  semi-annual  journey 
to  Hartford  and  New  Haven  was  performed  on  horseback  and  in 
a  single  day,  wheeled  carriages  being  too  new  a  fashion  for  a  man 
like  him.  He  was  tall,  spare,  swarthy,  with  heavy  overhanging 
eye-brows,  quaint  in  speech,  and  remarkable  for  a  primitive  sim- 
plicity of  manners,  combined  with  an  impressive  dignity.  He 
died  at  Montville  in  1816,  leaving  a  numerous  posterity.  Six  of 
his  seven  sons,  and  two  of  his  three  daughters  lived  to  maturity, 
and  most  of  them  to  old  age. 

His  brother,  James  Abraham  Hillhouse,  was  born  in  1730,  was 
educated  at  Yale  College,  where  he  graduated  in  1749,  and  was 
appointed  tutor  one  year  afterwards.  A  colleague  and  intimate 
friend  of  Ezra  Stiles  (afterwards  President  Stiles)  he  devoted  him- 
self, with  tbat  enthusiastic  scholar,  to.  legal  studies ;  and  when, 
after  six  years  of  service,  he  relinquished  his  academic  employ- 
ment, he  established  himself  at  New  Haven  in  the  profession  of 
law.  He  was  soon  distinguished  at  the  bar  by  his  forensic  abili- 
ities  as  well  as  by  his  learning.  He  was  eminent  among  his  fel- 
low citizens,  and  was  honored  by  their  confidence.  In  1772  he 
was  elected  one  of  the  twelve  "  Assistants"  who  with  the  Governor 
and  Lieutenant-Governor,  were  the  Council  or  senate  ;  for,  charac- 
terized as  he  was  by  the  combination  of  undoubted  patriotism  with 
modefatian  and  political  wisdom,  he  was  one  of  those  men  who 
are  most  needed  in  a  state  at  the  crisis  of  an  impending  revolu- 
tion. Three  years  afterwards,  at  the  noon  of  life,  being  only 
forty-six  years  of  age,  he  was  removed  by  death,  leaving  a  name 

*  At  Governor  Trumbull's  retirement  from  the  public  service,  William  Hillhouse 
was  chosen  to  fill  the  vacancy  at  the  council-board  which  had  been  caused  by  the 
promotion  of  his  brother-in-law,  Matthew  Griswold,  to  the  office  of  Governor, 
and  of  Samuel  Huntington  to  the  office  of  Lieutenant  Governor. 


8  JAMES  HIJ^LHOUSE, 

that  was  long  retained  in  a  most  affectionate  remembrance  among 
his  townsmen.  "  His  christian  life  and  conversation  were  truly 
exemplary,  and  he  was  adorned  with  the  graces  of  meekness,  char- 
ity and  humility."  His  wife,  a  lady  of  French  descent,  whose 
grandfather  fled  to  this  country  at  the  revocation  of  the  edict  of 
Nantz,  was  distinguished  by  dignity  of  manners,  as  well  as  by 
substantial  worth  of  mind  and  heart.  She  survived  him  almost 
half  a  century,  and  died  in  1822  at  the  age  of  89. 

Of  these  two  brothers,  the  younger  was  childless.  His  mansion, 
built  by  himself  at  the  head  of  Church  street,  one  of  the  best 
houses  in  New  Haven  at  that  day,  and  his  growing  possessions, 
■were  without  a  lineal  heir. 

James  Hillhouse,  the  second  son  of  William  Hillhouse,  of 
Montville,  was  adopted  into  the  family  of  his  uncle  at  New  Haven. 
He  was  born  on  the  20th  of  October,  1754,  and  was  removed  from 
his  father's  house  to  his  uncle's,  when  he  was  only  seven  years  old. 
By  this  change  in  his  domestic  relations,  he  was  placed  as  an  only 
child,  the  pride  and  hope  of  his  adopted  father,  in  a  family  where 
intelligence,  hospitality,  courtesy,  large  intercourse  with  the  best 
society,  a  constant  example  of  every  manly  and  honorable  quality, 
and  a  careful  religious  nurture  after  the  ancient  pattern,  were 
united  in  the  influences  by  which  his  character  was  molded.  In 
his  early  education  he  was  one  of  the  many  thousand  who  have 
had  the  benefits  of  the  memorable  endowment  which  Governor 
Hopkins,  in  hiis  testamentary  remembrance  of  New  England,  had 
provided  a  century  before,  and  which  has  now  sustained  for  two 
hundred  years  the  Grammar  Schools  of  New  Haven,  Hartford, 
and  Hadley.  While  he  was  a  student  in  Yale  College,  (from  1769 
to  1773)  the  Faculty  consisted  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Daggett,  professor 
of  Divinity  and  acting  President, — Nehemiah  Strong,  professor  of 
Mathematics  and  Natural  Philosophy,— and  three  tutors.  It  is  sug- 
gestive  to  trace  on  the  triennial  catalogue  the  names  of  the  men 
who  successively  officiated  as  tutors  during  that  period  of  four 
years.  For  the  first  year  the  three  tutors  were  Ebenezer  Bald- 
win, Joseph  Howe,  and  Samuel  Wales.  The  next  year,  Joseph 
Lyman  and  Buckingham  St.  John  occupied  the  places  of  Baldwin 
and  Wales.  A  year  later,  when  Hillhouse  was  a  junior  sophister, 
John  Trumbull  and  Timothy  Dwight  succeeded  to  Lyman  and 
-St.  John  ;  and  in  the  last  year  of  the  four,  Nathan  Strong  came  in 
the  place  of  Howe.  The  tutor  under  whose  immediate  care  and 
instruction  Hillhouse  pursued  Jjis  studies  for  the  first  three  years, 


JAMES  HILLHOUSE.  9 

was  Joseph  Howe,  afterwards  pastor  of  the  New  South  Church  in 
Boston,  whom  he  always  remembered  with  a  grateful  reverence.* 

One  incident  of  his  college  life  may  be  recited  here  in  the 
words  in  which  it  was  narrated,  more  than  half  a  century  after- 
wards,  at  his  funeral :  "  It  will  not  be  improper  to  say — especially 
as  the  fact  may  produce  a  salutary  impression  on  some  young 
mind  in  this  assembly — that  he  was  somewhat  advanced  in  college 
life  before  he  became  properly  conscious  of  his  powers  or  of  the 
worth  of  time,  or  practically  convinced  of  the  importance  of  that 
close  application  to  whatever  was  in  hand,  by  which  he  was  after- 
wards so  distinguished.  The  late  President  Dwight,  who  was  then 
in  college  as  a  tutor,  though  not  his  tutor,  had  noticed  him  with 
interest,  and,  with  the  discernment  of  youthful  character  which 
qualified  the  illustrious  president  to  be  the  greatest  teacher  of  his 
age,  had  seen  in  him  the  elements  of  future  greatness;  and  he,  by  one 
well-timed,  spirited,  affectionate  admonition  and  appeal,  roused  the 
man  in  the  bosom  of  the  unthinking  stripling,  and  gave  the  coun- 
try a  patriot  and  a  sage.  To  that  incident  our  honored  friend  often 
referred  in  after  life  with,  grateful  emotion,  and  from  that  hour  he 
regarded  his  benefactor  with  veneration." 

It  was  almost  a  matter  of  course  that  he  was  destined  to  the  pro- 
fession in  which  his  uncle  had  become  so  eminent.  He  began  his 
reading  in  the  science  of  law  soon  after  leaving  college ;  and  it 
was  intended  that,  before  entering  on  the  practice  of  his  profession, 
he  should  devote  several  years  to  those  studies,  and  should  have 
the  benefit  of  the  highest  advantages.  But  on  the  6th  of  October, 
1775,  only  two  years  after  the  completion  of  his  college  course, 
the  life  on  which  that  plan  of  study  depended,  was  cut  off.  By 
the  death  of  his  uncle  he  was  suddenly  brought  under  the  neces- 
sity of  directing  his  own  course  and  of  providing  for  himself. 
Thenceforward  all  his  success  in  life  was  dependent  on  his  own 
exertions.  He  had  still,  indeed,  a  home  in  his  uncle's  family, 
which  consisted  of  the  widow  and  her  mother  and  grandmother. 
To  a  family  thus  constituted,  he  was  bound  not  only  by  grateful 

*  Rev.  Joseph  Howe,  pastor  of  the  New  South  Church  in  Boston,  died  at  Hart- 
ford, Aug.  20,  1775.  Pres.  Stiles  makes  a  record  of  this  event  in  his  Literary 
Diary,  and  adds,  apparently  from  some  publication  of  the  day:  "  The  righteous 
disposer  of  events  was  pleased  to  remove  him  from  the  labors  of  the  present  life, 
soon  after  he  had  engaged  the  public  eye  and  given  the  world  reason  to  expect 
much  from  his  eminent  abilities,  his  great  attainments  in  literature,  and  the  un- 
common goodness  of  his  heart.  His  church,  now  scattered  abroad  by  an  exertion 
of  lawless  power,  are  overwhelmed  with  sorrow."  The  further  information  is 
given,  that  after  his  first  dejgree  he  taught  a  Grammar  School  iu  Hartford, 


IQ  ^AMES  HILLHOUSB. 

affection  but  by  the  consideration  of  their  dependence  upon  him. 
As  soon  as  he  could  be  admitted  to  the  bar,  he  began  the  practice 
of  his  chosen  profession,  and  was  successful  in  obtaining  some 
part  of  bis  uncle's  extensive  business ;  but  in  his  later  years  he 
loved  to  speak  of  his  early  struggles,  and  sometimes  said  that  he 
was  compelled  to  borrow  money  for  the  payment  of  his  first  court- 
fees.  He  inherited  no  part  of  his  uncle's  property  till  he  was 
nearly  seventy  years  of  age.  Yet  in  a  few  years,  by  his  diligence 
and  success  in  his  profession,  and  by  the  judiciousness  of  his  in. 
vestments  in  real  estate,  he  had  become  a  man  of  wealth. 

In  his  twenty-fourth  year,  on  the  first  of  January,  1779,  he  was 
united  in  marriage  with  Sarah,  daughter  of  John  Lloyd,  Esq.,  of 
Stamford.  But  before  that  new  year  had  ended,  his  young  wife 
and  the  infant  she  had  borne  him,  were  laid  in  the  grave. 
About  three  years  afterwards  he  married  Rebecca,  daughter  of  Col. 
Melancthon  Woolsey,  of  Dosoris,  Long  Island.  Till  after  his  second 
marriage,  he  continued  to  reside  with  the  widow  of  his  deceased  un- 
cle. Afterwards,  when  the  growth  of  his  own  family  required  a  sep- 
arate home  for  them,  he  established  his  residence  in  close  proximity 
to  the  mansion  that  had  sheltered  his  childhood ;  and  till  the  death 
of  his  aged  relative,  nothing  that  the  tenderest  filial  kindness  could 
do  for  her  was  wanting  on  his  part.  By  his  second  marriage  he 
had  two  sons  and  three  daughters.  The  sons  were  James  A.  Hill- 
house,  the  poet,  and  Augustus  L.  Hillhouse,  Esq.,  who  still  sur- 
vives at  Paris,  where  he  has  resided  for  more  than  forty  years. 
Mrs.  Hillhouse  died  on  the  29th  of  December,  1813,  and  was 
buried  on  the  new-year's  day  ensuing.  That  day  was  selected  for 
the  funeral  by  her  husband's  choice  because  it  was  the  thirty-fifth 
anniversary  of  his  first  marriage. 

Much  more  might  be  said  concerning  his  domestic  life,  but  this 
memoir  is  designed  to  exhibit  his  public  services  and  his  character 
as  a  citizen  and  a  benefactor  of  the  state,  rather  than  those  details 
of  personal  experience  which  cannot  be  adequately  represented  in 
any  other  way  than  by  a  liberal  use  of  materials  which  the  sensi- 
tiveness of  family  affection  still  keeps  back  from  the  public.  Per- 
haps  the  time  may  come  when  his  private  correspondence  with  his 
family,  and  with  his  intimate  friends,  will  be  added  to  the  already 
accumulated  mass  of  the  published  letters  which  exhibit  the  great 
men  of  our  revolutionary  period  in  their  private  friendships  and 
personal  sympathies  or  antipathies,  and  in  their  domestic  affections 
and  vicissitudes.  For  our  present  purpose,  it  may  be  enough  to 
say  that  his  was  a  happy  home,  where  a  large  and  hearty  hospl. 


JAMES  niLLHOUSE  11 

tality  flourished  after  the  fashion  of  what  has  now  become  the 
olden  time,  and  where  the  dignity  without  the  stiiTnese  of  antique 
New  England  courtesy  was  combined  with  a  true  and  affectionate 
simplicity  of  manners,  and  with  eminent  intelligence  and  refine- 

ment. 

Passing  from  youth  to  manhood  just  when  the  great  struggle  for 
independence  was  about  to  commence,  James  Hill  house  shared 
largely  in  the  patriotic  enthusiasm  of  the  time.  Before  he  was  of 
acre,  he  was  hitidered  from  joining  his  townsnf>an,  Benedict  Arnold, 
in  the  memorable  expedition  of  1775,  only  by  a  positive  prohibi- 
tion  from  his  uncle.  The  death  of  that  relative,  in  the  autumn  of 
the  same  year,  threw  upon  him,  as  we  have  seen,  new  and  heavy 
responsibilities  quite  inconsistent  with  his  military  aspirations. 
But  in  those  times  every  man  had  opportunity  to  show  what- 
ever capability  he  might  have  of  military  skill  and  prowess. 
When  every  man  from  eighteen  years  of  age  to  forty-five  was 
enrolled  in  the  militia  and  required  to  do  military  duty,  and  wh&n 
every  militia  company  was  constantly  liable  to  be  summoned  into 
active  service,  a  commission  in  the  militia  had  more  significance 
than  it  can  have  in  times  like  these.  In  1779,  James  Hillhouse 
was  Captain  Hillhouse  of  the  Company  of  Governor's  Foot  Guards. 
Congress,  after  conferring  with  General  Washington  on  the  condition 
and  constitution  of  the  army,  made  a  new  arrangement,  requir- 
ing  each  separate  State  to  raise  its  own  definite  quota  of  recruits 
for  the  continental  service,  and  ofTerinej,  through  the  State,  large 
bounties  in  lands  and  money  to  encourage  enlistments.  The 
legislature  of  Connecticut  had  determined  to  offer  additional  boun- 
ties and  new  guarantees  against  the  depreciation  of  the  currency, 
and  had  made  special  provision  for  the  families  of  soldiers  in  the 
army.  Captain  Hillhouse  was  specially  entrusted  by  Governor 
Trumbull  with  the  duty  of  promoting  enlistments  in  one  of  the 
brigades.  A  stirring  appeal  from  liim,  inviting  enlistments,  and 
calling  on  "all  friends  to  American  freedom"  for  their  patriotic 
cooperation  in  promoting  the  object,  was  published  in  the  New 
Haven  newspaper  of  June  23d,  1779.* 


*  We  transcribe  the  address  at  length  from  the  Connecticut  Journal  of  the 
above  named  date. 

ALL  FRIENDS  TO  AMEBICAN  FREEDOM. 

The  period  is  now  come,  when  (in  all  probability)  we  may,  with  proper  exer- 
tions, put  a  speedy  termination  to  the  war.  And  nothing  is  more  necessary  to 
bring  about  so  desirable  an  event,  than  furnishing  a  competent  number  of  men  for 
the  field.    The  encouragement  for  soldiers  to  enlist  is  truly  great,  and  the  oflfers 


1^  JAMBS  HILLHOUSE. 

A  few  days  afterwards,  on  Monday,  July  5th,  the  Anniversary 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  to  be  celebrated  for  the 
first  time  in  New  Haven.  Captain  Hillhouse  was  among  the  most 
active  in  making  the  arrangements  and  preparations  for  that  occa- 
sion.  Sunday  evening — for  the  New  England  sabbath  was  then 
measured  from  sunset  to  sunset— there  was  a  public  assembly  of 
citizens  in  the  meetmg-house  of  the  First  Church,  (the  old  "  Middle 
Brick")  and  the  programme  of  the  intended  celebration  was  comple- 
ted.    Some  of  the  more  zealous  and  active  were  occupied  till  a  late 

generous.  The  time  of  service  will  most  likely  be  short ;  they  are  to  suffer  noth- 
ing by  the  depreciation  of  currency ;  their  families  are  to  be  supplied  with  the 
substantial  of  life  at  the  oldjprice ;  the  army  are  well  clothed,  and  provided  with 
everything  necessary  and  convenient ;  and  at  the  end  of  the  war  they  are  to  re- 
ceive a  handsome  reward  for  their  services.  I  am  sensible  our  internal  foes,  our 
worst  enemies,  will  throw  every  discouragement  in  the  way,— will  tell  you  that 
our  money  is  almost  run  out,  and  that  we  must  inevitably  submit.  But  you  may 
be  assured  that  no  exertions  will  be  wanting  on  the  part  of  the  United  States  to 
disappoint  their  expectations.  And  I  am  confident  that  should  it  ever  be  our 
misfortune  to  experience  such  a  calamity,  the  free-born  sons  of  America  would 
arm  themselves  and  go  forth,  Avithout  hire  or  reward,  against  our  enemies,  and 
never  lay  down  their  arms  till  they  had  driven  every  invader  from  our  land. 
Never  have  the  Americans  been  animated  with  a  becoming  spirit,  but  the}'  have 
been  successful.  No  sooner  were  our  Southern  Brethren  roused  to  proper  exer- 
tions, than  they  defeated  the  troops,  sent  upon  an  expedition,  from  the  success  of 
which  our  enemies  have  made  such  pompous  boasts,  and  have  driven  them  off 
loaded  with  infamy  and  disgrace. 

His  Excellency,  the  Governor,  has  directed  me  to  enlist  all  within  this  brigade 
who  shall  be  so  nobly  and  virtuously  inclined.  Tt  being  a  matter  of  public  con- 
cern, I  beg  every  individual  will  use  his  influence  to  encourage  a  competent  num- 
ber to  enlist,  as  it  will  save  the  disagreeable  necessity  of  a  draught:  And  volun- 
tary enlistment  is  certainly  much  the  most  eligible,  as  it  will  convince  our  ene- 
mies we  have  not  yet  lost  our  spirits,  and  will  fill  our  brethren,  already  in  the 
field,  with  new  life  and  courage  to  find  ns  ready  with  cheerfuLaess  to  lend  them 
our  aid. 

Lest  there  should  be  any  who  cannot  engage  upon  the  above  terms,  for  fear  the 
war  may  chance  to  continue  longer  than  they  think  they  can  possibly  absent 
themselves  from  their  families  and  farms,  I  am  authorized  by  his  Excellency 
to  offer  those  who  will  engage  to  serve  in  said  army  until  the  fifteenth  day  of  Jan- 
uary next,  twenty  pounds  bounty,  a  new  regimental  coat,  and  the  same  pay,  re- 
freshment, and  family  support,  during  the  term  of  their  services  respectively  as 
other  soldiers  in  the  Continental  army,  with  liberty  to  choose  the  company  in 
which  they  will  be  joined.  And  who  is  there  that  will  deprive  himself  of  the 
pleasure  and  satisfaction  he  would  derive  through  his  whole  life,  from  reflecting 
upon  his  having  served  a  campaign  in  so  important  a  period  of  the  war.  I  hereby 
invite  all,  and  shall  make  the  off"er  to  as  many  as  possible,  to  engage  befo/e  the 
10th  day  of  July  next,  when  I  am  to  make  return  to  his  Excellency.  Those  who 
incline  to  accept,  will,  by  making  application,  receive  their  bounty  in  bills,  and 
be  kindly  treated  by  their  most  obedient  and  humble  servant, 

JAMES  HILLHOUSE. 

New  Haven,  June  21, 1779. 


JAMES  HILLH0U3E.  1 3 

hour  in  making  preparations.  They  could  not  have  had  much 
time  for  sleep,  when  at  two  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  that  day 
a  British  fleet,  which  had  sailed  from  New  York  on  Saturday, 
anchored  off  West- Haven.  Alarm  guns  were  fired,  and  the  mili- 
tia  were  called  to  arms.  A  portion  of  the  inhabitants  made  haste 
to  remove  their  families,  and  whatever  of  their  household  goods 
was  most  valuable.  Others  were  slow  to  believe  that  any  great 
danger  was  impending,  and  flattered  themselves  with  the  hope 
that  the  fleet  would  sail  in  the  morning.  But  not  long  after  sun- 
rise, those  who  were  watching  with  a  telescope  on  the  tower  of  the 
college  chapel,  (the  building  now  known  as  the  Athenaeum)  saw 
distinctly  boats  putting  off  from  the  shipping  for  the  shore,  and 
there  was  no  longer  room  for  the  most  incredulous  or  the  most 
hopeful  to  doubt  what  were  the  intentions  of  the  enemy.  Of  the 
adult  male  population,  a  large  portion  armed  themselves  and  went 
forth  to  meet  the  invaders.  Another  portion  left  the  town  with 
those  of  the  women  and  children  who  were  removed  to  places  of 
safety.  Others,  to  the  number  of  ninety  or  a  hundred,  remained 
at  home,  "  partly  tories,  partly  timid  whigs,"  as  President  Stiles 
describes  them.  The  land  force  designed  for  the  destruction  of 
New  Haven  was  two  thousand  six  hundred  men,  as  officially  re- 
ported. One  division,  under  the  command  of  Gen.  Garth,  was 
landed,  and  as  soon  as  that  operation  was  completed  the  fleet  sailed 
to  the  other  side  of  the  harbor,  where  the  landing  of  the  other' 
division,  under  the  immediate  command  of  Gen.  Tryon;  was 
speedily  effected.  The  inhabitants  of  East  Haven  and  the  adjoin- 
ing towns  found  occupation  for  Gen.  Tryon  and  his  troops,  while 
the  available  force  of  New  Haven,  amounting  to  not  more  than 
two  hundred  men,  with  two  field  pieces,  went  out  to  encounter 
Gen.  Garth.  Hezekiah  Sabin,  who  was  a  lieutenant  colonel  in 
the  militia,  seems  to  have  been  the  recognized  commander  of  the 
little  force  extemporaneously  raised.  The  two  pieces  of  artillery 
were  stationed  at  West  Bridge,  where  some  slight  defences  were 
hastily  raised  in  a  position  to  com.mand  not  only  the  bridge  but  the 
long  causeway  by  which  it  is  approached  from  the  west.  "  Cap- 
tain Hillhouse,"  says  President  Stiles,  "  with  twenty  or  thirty  brave 
young  men,  together  with  many  others,  crossed  the  bridge  over  to 
Milford  Hill,  and  within  a  hundred  yards  or  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
of  the  [West  Haven]  meeting  house,  where  the  enemy  were  pa- 
raded. Upon  their  beginning  the  march.  Captain  Hillhouse  fired 
upon  the  advanced  guard  so  as  to  drive  them  in  upon  the  main 
body.      But  coming-in  force,  the  enemy  proceeded.     Others  be. 


14  JAMES  HILLHOUSE. 

sides  Hillhouse's  party  had  by  this  time  passsd  the  bridge  and 
reached  the  hill,  to  perhaps  one  hundred  and  fifty  men.  These 
kept  up  a  galling  fire  on  especially  their  outguards  extending  per- 
haps  forty  or  fifty  rods  on  each  side  the  column.*  Our  artillery 
at  the  bridge  was  well  managed  by  Captain  [Phineas]  Bradley, 
threw  shot  successfully  across  to  Mil  ford  Hill,  and  prevented  the 
enemy  from  passing  the  causeway  and  so  into  town  that  way." 
Thus  baffled  at  that  point  the  enemy  continued  their  march  north- 
ward to  what  is  now  the  Westville  Bridge,  annoyed  and  harassed 
on  their  march  by  a  party  of  the  New  Haven  men  on  their  left 
under  the  leadership  of  Aaron  Burr,  who  happened  to  be  with 
some  of  his  relatives  in  New  Haven  at  that  time,  and  who  after 
carrying  a  young  daughter  of  his  uncle,  Pierpont  Edwards,f  to  a 
place  of  safety  in  North  Haven,  had  returned  in  time  to  partake 
in  the  fight.  Meanwhile  Captain  Hillhouse  and  the  remainder  of 
the  little  force  on  Milford  Hill  returned  over  West  fridge,  and 
with  Col.  Sabin  and  the  two  field  pieces  went  across  the  fields  to 
meet  the  enemy  at  the  Westville  Bridge.     There  the  enemy  effected 

*  It  was  "  at  the  second  mile-stone,"  just  where  the  road  to  West  Haven  di- 
verges from  the  Milford  road,  that  the  Rev.  Dr.  Daggett,  Professor  of  Divinity  in 
Yale  College,  (and  the  acting  President  for  nine  years  before  the  accession  of  Dr. 
Stiles)  encoimtered  the  enemy.  He  had  come  from  the  town  "riding  furiously 
on  his  old  black  mare,  with  his  long  fowling  piece  in  his  hand."  At  the  bridge 
he  had  addressed  a  few  "patriotic  and  earnest  words"  to  the  little  company  that 
was  to  serve  the  artillery.  Rushing  by  the  company  of  young  men  under 
Capt.  Hillhouse,  several  of  them  students,  he  was  greeted  with  cheers.  As  they 
turned  southward  toward  West  Haven,  they  saw  him  ascending  a  little  to  the 
west,  and  taking  his  station  deliberately  in  a  little  copse  of  woods.  When  the 
young  men,  having  driven  back  the  advanced  guard  and  encountered  the  main 
body  of  the  enemy,  were  making  their  hasty  retreat  to  regain  the  other  side  of  the 
river,  the  professor,  who  never  had  learned  to  "  advance  backward,"  kept  his  sta- 
tion with  characteristic  fearlessness  and  tenacity,  waiting  for  the  enemy.  As  the 
British  column  came  up,  several  successive  shots  from  the  hill  side  arrested  their 
attention,  and  the  sturdy  form  of  the  professor  in  his  clerical  costume  was  easily 
discovered  by  the  party  sent  to  the  spot  whence  the  firing  proceeded.  "  What  are 
you  doing  there,  you  old  fool,  firing  on  His  Majesty's  troops?"  was  the  exclama- 
tion of  the  officer.  "  Exercising  the  rights  of  war,''''  replied  the  professor.  The 
oddity  of  such  an  answer,  proceeding  from  such  a  person,  probably  arrested  the 
shot  or  the  bayonet  that  might  have  killed  him  on  the  instant ;  and  the  question 
was  put  whether,  if  his  life  was  spared,  he  would  be  likely  ever  to  do  such  a 
thing  again.  "  Nothing  more  li'kely,''''  said  he,  "  I  rather  think  I  should.''''  He  was 
permitted  to  surrender  himself;  but  was  cruelly  pierced  with  bayonets,  and  driven 
at  the  head  of  their  column  till  they  reached  the  town.  For  a  month  afterwards 
his  life  was  in  danger  from  the  wounds  and  injuries  which  he  had  received,  and 
indeed,  his  death,  which  took  place  in  the  following  year,  was  hastened  by  those 
sufterings.  See  the  article^  on  Prof.  Daggett  in  Dr.  Sprague's  Annals  of  the 
American  Pulpit,  Vol.  I. 

t  The  late  Mrs.  Johnson,  of  Stratford. 


JAMES  HILLHOUSE.  15 

their  passage,  partly  over  the  bridge  and  partly  by  fording  the 
river.  But  as  they  came  up  the  hill  from  the  river,  and  took  the 
road  towards  the  town,  the  force  commanded  by  Col.  Sabin  and 
Captain  Hillhouse,  "  gave  them  a  heavy  fire  and  took  a  number 
of  prisoners."  By  this  time,  too,  they  began  to  be  annoyed  by 
parties  of  militia  from  Derby  and  other  towns.  The  New  Haven 
men  kept  up  their  firing  as  they  retreated  toward  their  homes. 
Just  at  the  entrance  of  the  town  as  it  then  was,  near  virhere  the 
junction  of  Dixwell  street  and  Whalley  avenue  now  is,  there  was 
something  like  a  battle  for  a  little  while,  and  a  number  were  killed 
on  both  sides.  The  enemy  entered  the  town  at  a  little  before  one 
o'clock  p.  m.,  greatly  exhausted  with  the  extreme  heat  of  the  day 
as  well  as  with  their  long  march  and  the  annoyances  they  had  met 
by  the  way. 

This  bold  defense  of  New  Haven  against  a  force  so  greatly 
superior,  answered  its  main  purpose.  It  gave  time  not  only  for 
the  escape  of  a  large  portion  of  the  alarmed  defenseless  popula- 
tion, but  also  for  the  removal  and  concealment  of  much  property 
that  would  otherwise  have  been  destroyed  or  carried  off  by  the 
enemy  ;  and  it  saved  the  town  from  the  fate  which  immediately 
afterwards  fell  upon  Fairfield  and  Norwalk.  "  From  the  first  en- 
trance till  eight  in  the  evening,  the  town  was  given  up  to  ravage 
and  plunder,  from  which  only  a  few  houses  were  protected."  Mrs. 
Hillhouse,  the  widow  of  James  Abraham  Hillhouse,  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Church  of  England,  and  her  political  sympathies  were 
with  the  British.  Hers,  therefore,  was  one  of  the  few  houses  to 
be  protected  from  pillage.  Some  of  the  British  officers  were 
quartered  there,  and  were  received  with  the  courtesy  due  to  men 
who  bore  His  Majesty's  commission.  Yet  the  loyal  lady  was  in 
great  danger  from  the  imputation  of  her  nephew's  patriotism.  It 
happened  that  the  newspaper  containing  Captain  Hillhouse's  patri- . 
otic  call  for  recruits  came  under  the  notice  of  the  officers  almost 
as  soon  as  they  entered  the  house  which  was  to  be  protected  for  its 
loyalty.  The  house  and  its  contents  would  have  been  immediately 
given  up  to  the  plundering  soldiers,  had  not  the  lady,  with  a  dig- 
nified frankness  which  repelled  suspicion,  informed  her  guests  that 
though  the  young  man  whose  name  was  subscribed  to  that  call 
was  a  near  and  valued  relative  of  hers,  and  was  actually  resident 
under  that  roof,  the  property  was  entirely  her  own  ;  and  that  the 
part  which  he  had  taken  in  the  conflict  with  Great  Britain,  was 
taken  not  only  on  his  own  responsibility,  but  in  opposition  to  her 
judgment  and  her  sympathies. 


IQ  JAMES  H1LLU0US6. 

Gen.  Tryon's  official  report  shows  that  the  conflagration  of  the 
town  was  intended,  and  that  the  purpose  was  relinquished  because 
it  became  necessary  to  hasten  the  re-embarkation  of  the  troops. 
The  intended  junction  of  the  division  which  landed  on  the  East 
Haven  side  with  that  which  landed  at  West  Haven,  could  not  be 
effected.  Squads  and  companies  of  militia  from  the  neighboring 
towns  were  beginning  to  gather  on  every  side  like  angry  clouds 
portending  a  tempest.  The  invaders  found  themselves  in  a  dan- 
gerous position  ;  and  at  the  earliest  morning  hour  they  called  in 
their  guards,  and  were  glad  to  find  that  they  were  permitted  to 
embark  without  molestation.  The  result  of  iheir  expedition  was 
that  they  had  killed  twenty-seven  Americans,  (including  those  who 
were  slain  in  their  own  houses)  and  had  wounded  nineteen,  while 
they  themselves  had  lost  about  eighty  in  killed  and  wounded  ;  that 
they  had  carried  away  some  tories  who  dared  not  stay  behind,  and 
a  few  prisoners  (including  some  whose  only  offense  was  that  they 
were  respected  and  trusted  by  their  fellow-citizens)  ;  that  they  had 
destroyed  about  seventy  thousand  dollars  worth  of  private  pro- 
perty ;  and  that  they  had  effectually  extirpated  whatever  sentiment 
of  loyalty  toward  the  British  crown  had  lingered  till  then  among 
the   more  conservative  sort  of  people. 

In  May,  1780,  the  roll  of  the  House  of  Representatives  in  the 
State  legislature  shows  the  name  of  "Captain  James  Hillhouse"  as 
the  second  representative  from  the  town  of  New  Haven.  The 
next  year  he  was  first  representative ;  and  thenceforward  he  was 
frequently  reelected  by  his  townsmen  to  this  trust,  till  the  people 
of  the  whole  State  in  1789  called  him  to  a  seat  in  the  Council.  In 
1786,  and  again  in  1787,  he  was  elected  by  the  people  at  large  a 
delegate  to  the  Congress  of  the  old  confederation  ;  but  he  did  not 
serve  in  that  capacity.  It  is  believed  that  no  other  instance  can  be 
found  in  which  so  young  a  man  has  been  so  trusted  and  honored 
by  the  people  of  Connecticut. 

In  1782,  he  was  elected  Treasurer  of  Yale  College,  and  he  held 
that  office  through  all  the  remainder  of  his  life,  just  fifty  years. 
Nor  did  it  become  to  him  a  merely  honorary  office,  when  other 
public  trusts  and  duties  required  him  to  be  absent  from  New  Haven 
for  a  large  part  of  every  year.  An  Assistant  Treasurer  was 
employed  by  the  corporation  to  relieve  him  of  the  executive  details 
of  the  business;  but  he  himself,  through  all  that  long  term  of  ser. 
vice,  superintended  the  finances  of  the  institution,  and  was  ever 
active  and  watchful  to  promote  its  interests.  He  loved  it  not  only 
because  of  his  personal  relation  to  it  as  an  alumnus,  but  also  be- 


JAMES  HILLHOUSE.  1 7 

cause,  in  his  estimation,  its  continued  efficiency  and  the  enlarge- 
ment of  its  means  of  usefulness  were  essential  to  the  welfare  and 
the  political  and  social  advancement  of  his  native  Connecticut. 
Few  names  in  the  history  of  Yale  College  are  more  worthy  than 
his  to  be  had  in  perpetual  and  grateful  remenibrance. 

In  October,  1790,  Mr.  Hillhouse  was  elected  one  of  the  five  rep- 
resentatives from  Connecticut  in  the  second  Congress  of  the  United 
States.  His  colleagues  in  the  representation  were  Jonathan  Stur- 
ges,  Jonathan  Trumbull,  Jeremiah  Wadsworth,  and  Amasa 
Learned.  The  published  diebates  (see  Benton's  Abridg::ment)  give 
ample  evidence  of  his  activity  and  influence  as  a  member  of  the 
House  of  Representatives.  Many  important  questions  in  relation 
to  the  working  of  the  government  under  the  Federal  Constitution 
were  to  be  considered  and  decided  ;  for  though  the  first  Congress, 
in  its  three  laborious  sessions,  had  organized  the  judiciary  and  the 
various  departments  of  executive  administration,  had  provided  a 
revenue  for  the  Federal  treasury,  had  re-established  the  public 
credit,  had  enacted  a  rule  of  naturalization,  had  made  the  neces- 
sary regulations  for  the  sale  and  settlement  of  the  public  lands, 
and  by  the  wisdom  of  their  measures  had  secured  for  the  new  gov- 
ernment  the  widest  confidence  in  its  stability  and  efficiency,  there 
remained  other  great  questions  incidental  to  the  newness  of  the 
constitution.  We  find  Mr.  Hillhouse  taking  part  in  almost  every 
great  debate  ;"  and  his  speeches  show  not  only  his  ability  as  a  de- 
bater, but  his  blunt  and  fearless  honesty,  his  unfailing  good  humor, 
and  his  sagacious  and  large-minded  patriotism.  His  first  speech,  as 
given  in  the  Abridged  Debates,  was  on  the  ratio  of  representation. 
Next  he  takes  part  in  the  discussion  on  a  provision  for  declaring 
what  officer  shall  act  as  President  in  case  of  a  vacancy  in  the 
office  both  of  President  and  Vice  President.  In  the  second  session 
of  that  Congress,  we  find  him  speaking,  first  against  a  proposed 
reduction  of  the  army  at  a  time  when  the  United  States  were  at 
war  with  powerful  tribes  of  Indians,  and,  next,  in  the  great  and 
protracted  debate  on  the  official  conduct  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  Alexander  Hamilton.  In  the  third  Congress,  the  repre- 
sentation of  Connecticut  being  increased  by  the  new  apportionment, 
his  colleagues  were  Learned,  Trumbull  and  Wadsworth,  of  the 
former  delegation,  together  with  Joshua  Coit,  Zephaniah  Swift,  and 
Uriah  Tracy.  In  the  fourth  Congress  he  had  three  new  col- 
leagues  in  the  places  of  Learned,  Trumbull  and  Wadsworth, 
namely,  Chauncey  Goodrich,  Rocrer  Griswold,  and  Nathaniel 
Smith.     The  first  session  of  that  Congress  was  signalized  by  two 


18  JAMliS  UILLUOUSE. 

memorable  debates  on  questions  arising  out  of  the  treaty  with 
Great  Britain,  known  as  Jay's  Treaty  ;— first,  on  a  motion  to  re. 
quest  of  the  President  (Washington)  a  copy  of  the  instructions 
given  to  the  minister  by  whom  the  treaty  was  negotiated,  and  of  all 
the  correspondence  and  documents  in  relation  to  it ;  and  after* 
wards  on  the  expediency  of  legislation  to  carry  the  treaty  into 
effect.  In  both  those  debates,  and  especially  in  the  second,  Mr. 
Hillhouse  had  a  conspicuous  part. 

At  the  opening  of  the  next  session,  which  began  at  Philadelphia, 
Dec.  5,  1796,  he  entered  the  Senate,  having  been  chosen  to  com- 
plete the  unexpired  term  of  Oliver  Ellsworth,  who  had  resigned 
his  seat  in  the  Senate  for  the  seat  of  Chief  Justice  in  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States.  At  the  inauguration  of  President 
John  Adams,  March  4,  1797,  he  presented  the  credentials  of  his 
re-election  for  the  full  term  of  six  years  then  commencing. 
When  Mr.  Jefferson,  after  being  elected  President,  withdrew  from 
the  presidency  of  the  Senate,  Mr.  Hillhouse  was  made  President 
pro  tempore  oiihoX  body.  He  was  duly  re-elected  for  another 
term  commencing  in  March,  1803,  and  for  yet  another  commencing 
with  the  first  inauguration  of  President  Madison,  in  1809.  He 
and  his  colleague,  Uriah  Tracy,  who  entered  the  Senate  with  him, 
as  successor  of  Jonathan  Trumbull  for  an  unexpired  term,  are  the 
only  senators  four  times  elected  to  that  place  by  the  State  of  Con- 
necticut. Hillhouse  and  Tracy  were  colleagues  in  the  Senate  till 
the  death  of  the  latter  in  1807,  just  at  the  commencement  of  his 
fourth  term  of  service.  In  the  party  divisions  of  that  period,  Mr. 
Hilliiouse  ranked  with  the  Federalists.  He  had  supported  the  ad- 
ministration  of  Washington  and  the  elder  Adams,  and  he  was  in 
the  opposition  under  the  administration  of  Jefferson.  Yet  his 
speeches  show  that  he  was  by  no  means  a  mere  partizan,  and  that 
on  great  questions  of  statesmanship,  he  ordinarily  rose  to  views 
above  the  range  of  party  interests.  Thus  in  the  debate  of  Novem- 
ber, 1803,  on  that  amendment  to  the  Constitution  by  which  the 
present  mode  of  electing  President  and  Vice  President  was  intro- 
duced, we  find  him  saying — 

Thougti  it  is  impossible  to  prevent  party  altogether,  much  more  when  pop- 
ulation and  luxury  increase,  and  corruption  and  vice  with  them,  it  is  prudent 
to  preserve  as  many  checks  against  it  as  are  practicable.  I  have  been  long 
in  Congress,  and  have  seen  the  conflicting  interests  of  large  and  small  States 
operate.  The  time  may  not  be  remote  when  party  will  adopt  new  designa- 
tions. Federal  and  Republican  parties  have  had  their  day ;  their  designa- 
tions will  not  last  long,  and  the  ground  of  difference  between  parties  will  not 
be  the  same  that  it  has  been ;  new  names  and  new  views  will  be  taken  ;  it  has 
been  the  course  in  all  nations.  *  *  *  A  fsinciful  difference  in  politics  is 
the  bugbear  of  party  now,  because  no  other,  no  real  cause  of  difference  has 
subsisted. 


JAMES  UILLIIOUSB.  19 

Federalist  as  he  was,  his  theory  of  the  Federal  government, 
even  while  the  party  with  which  he  acted  was  ascendant  in  the 
Union  abhorred  the  idea  of  centralized  and  consolidated  power. 
He  regarded  the  State  governments  as  the  great  conservative  force 
in  our  political  system,  the  guardians  of  liberty  against  power, 
the  depositaries  of  all  the  most  important  public  trusts,  and  the 
ultimate  security,  under  God,  for  the  efficiency  and  permanence 
of  republican  principles.  He  opposed  whatever  tended  to  mag- 
nify with  factitious  honors  and  means  of  influence  the  functiona- 
ries  of  the  Federal  power.  The  Presidency  of  the  United  States, 
with  its  great  and  ever  growing  accumulation  of  power,  and  with 
the  excitements  and  perils  of  the  quadrennial  election,  was  to  his 
view  the  point  of  peril  in  our  system.  He  sometimes  said  among 
his  friends,  that  the  Presidency  was  made  for  Washington ;  that 
the  Convention  in  defining  the  powers  of  that  office,  and  the  States, 
in  accepting  the  constitution  as  it  was,  had  Washington  only  in 
their  thoughts  ;  and  that  the  powers  of  that  office  were  too  great 
to  be  committed  to  any  other  man.  Such  considerations,  long 
cherished,  led  him  to  propose,  in  April,  1808,  certain  amendments 
to  the  constitution,  aiming  at  a  radical  reformation  of  what  he  con- 
sidered as  the  dangerous  tendencies  in  the  system  of  our  Federal 
government.  That  proposal  has  been  so  often  associated  with  his 
name  by  those  who  know  little  of  what  it  was,  or  of  what  he  was, 
that  the  readers  of  this  memoir  will  reasonably  expect  to  find  here 
his  own  statement  and  explanation  of  his  views.  The  lapse  of 
more  than  half  a  century  since  his  speech  in  the  Senate  explain- 
ing his  proposed  amendments,  has  added  as  much  to  the  strength 
of  the  Union  as  it  has  added  to  our  territorial  dimensions  and  to 
our  imperial  wealth  and  greatness ;  but  it  has  not  invigorated  the 
sentiment  of  State  sovereignty  ;  nor  has  it  diminished  the  power 
of  the  President  or  the  excitements  that  attend  a  Presidential  elec- 
tion. Tljose  who  have  already  forgotten  what  threats  were  gravely 
made. by  the  gravest  sort  of  men  while  the  last  election  was  in 
progress,  and  what  schemes  were  projected  by  fiery  and  danger- 
ous men  to  dissolve  the  Union  by  violence  in  the  event  of  the  suc- 
cess of  the  candidate  whom  they  opposed — those  who  do  not  know 
that  the  business  of  making  Presidents  has  become  the  absorbing 
and  all-subordinating  business  of  our  national  politics  ;  nor  that 
the  salaries,  jobs,  and  perquisites,  directly  or  indirectly  at  the  dis- 
posal of  the  President,  are  claimed  and  acknowledged  as  due  to  the 
party  workers  who  have  helped  him  to  his  place  of  power — may 


20  JAMKa  lULLHOUSM. 

smile  al  the  fear  which  so  old-fashioned  a  patriot  as  James  Hill* 
house  could  not  but  feel  for'  the  future  of  his  country.* 

*  The  resolution  in  which  Mr.  Hilihouse  presented  his  proposed  amendments  to 
the  Senate,  was  as  follows : 

Resolved,  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of  Amer- 
ica^ in  Congress  assembled,  (two-thirds  of  both  Houses  concurring,)  That  the  follow- 
ing articles  be  proposed  to  the  Legislatures  of  the  several  States,  as  amendments 
to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States ;  iill  or  any  of  which  articles  when  rati- 
fied by  three-fourths  of  the  said  Legislatures,  to  be  valid  to  all  intents  and  T>urpo- 
ses  as  part  of  the  said  Constitution,  viz:  ^ 

Articles-  in  addition  to,  and  amendment  of,  the  Constitution  0¥  the  United 

States  of  Amekica,  proposed  by  Congress,  and  ratified  by  the  Legislatures 

of  the  several  States,  pursuant  to  the  fifth  article  of  the  original  Constitution. 

I.  After  the  third  day  of  March,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  thirteen,  the 
House  of  Representatives  shall  be  composed  of  members  chosen  every  year  by 
the  people  of  the  several  States :  their  electors  in  each  State  shall  have  the  quali- 
fications requisite  for  electors  of  the  most  numerous  branch  of  the  State  Legisla- 
ture ;  and  their  term  of  service  shall  expire  on  the  first  Tuesday  of  April  in  each 
year. 

IL  After  the  third  day  of  March,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  thirteen,  the 
Senators  of  the  United  States  shall  be  chosen  for  three  years,  and  their  term  of 
service  shall  expire  on  the  first  Tuesday  of  April. 

Immediately  after  they  shall  be  assembled,  in  consequence  of  the  first  election, 
they  shall  be  divided  as  equally  as  may  be,  into  three  classes.  The  seats  of  the 
first  class  shall  be  vacated  at  the  expiration  of  the  first  year ;  of  the  second  class 
at  the  expiration  of  the  second  year ;  and  of  the  third  class,  at  the  expiration  of 
the  third  year:  so  that  one  third  maybe  chosen  every  year.  Vacancies  to  be 
filled  as  already  provided. 

in.  On  the  third  day  of  March,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  thirteen,  the 
President  of  the  United  States  shall  be  appointed,  and  shall  hold  his  ofiice  until 
the  expiration  of  the  first  Tuesday  of  April,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  four- 
teen. And  on  the  first  Tuesday  of  April,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  four- 
teen, and  on  the  first  Tuesday  df  April,  in  each  succeeding  year,  the  President 
shall  be  appointed,  to  hold  his  office  during  the  term  of  one  yeiu-.  The  mode  of 
appointment  shall  be  as  follows.: 

In  presence  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives,  each  Senator  belong- 
ing to  the  class  whose  term  of  service  will  first  expire,  and  constitutionally  eligi- 
ble to  the  office  of  President,  of  which  the  House  of  Representatives  shall  be  the 
sole  judges,  and  shall  decide  without  debate,  shall,  beginning  with  the  first  on  the 
alphabet,  and  in  their  alphabetical  order,  draw  a  ball  out  of  a  box  containing  the 
same  number  of  uniform  balls  as  there  shall  be  Senators  present  and  eligible,  one 
of  which  balls  shall  be  colored,  the  others  white.  The  Senator  who  shall 
draw  the  colored  ball  shall  be  President.  A  Committee  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, to  consist  of  a  member  from  each  State,  to  be  appointed  in  such  man- 
ner as  the  House  shall  direct,  shall  place  the  balls  in  the  box,  shall  shake  the  same 
so  as  to  intemiix  them,  and  shall  superintend  the  drawing  thereof.  In  case  of  the 
removal  of  the  President  from  office,  or  of  his  death,  resignation,  or  inability  to 
discharge  the  powers  and  duties  thereof,  if  Congress  be  theii  in  session,  or  if  not, 
as  soon  as  they  shall  be  in  session,  the  President  shall,  in  the  manner  before  men- 
tioned, be  appointed  for  the  residue  of  the  term.  And  until  the  disability  be  re- 
moved, or  a  President  be  appointed,  the  Speaker  of  the  Senate  shall  act  as  Presi- 
dent.   And  Congress  may,  by  law,  provide  for  the  case  of  removal  by  death, 


JAMES  HILLHOUSB.  21 

The  entire  speech  in  which  Mr.  Hillhouse  explained  to  the  Sen- 

ate  his  proposals  for  amendments  to  the  constitution,  is  too  long  to 

be  transcribed  in  this  place.     A  condensed  abstract,  with  a  few 

selected  passages,  may  serve  to  exhibit  the  mind  and  spirit  of  the 

man.     Having  referred,  in  his  exordium,  to  the  circumstances  in 

which  the  constitution  was  formed  and  adopted,  he  said  : 

Before  I  proceed  with  my  explanatory  remarks,  I  must  take  the  liberty  of 
stating  that  in  using  the  terms  '  monarchy,'  '  aristocracy,'  and  '  democracy,' 
I  do  not  use  them  as  the  cant  words  of  party  ;  I  use  them  in  their  fair  genu- 
ine sense.  The  terms  '  FederaUst'  and  '  RepubUcan,'  I  do  not  use  by  way  of 
commendation  or  reproach,  but  merely  by  way  of  description,  as  the  first 
names  of  individuals  to  distinguish  them  from  others  of  the  same  family 
name. 

resignation,  or  inability  of  the  President,  and  vacancy  in  the  office,  or  inability 
of  the  Speaker  of  the  Senate ;  and  such  officer  shall  act  accordingly  until  the  dis- 
ability of  the  President  be  removed,  or  another  be  appointed. 

The  seat  of  a  Senator  who  shall  be  appointed  as  President,  shall  thereby  be 
vacated. 

IV.  After  the  third  day  of  March,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  thirteen, 
the  compensation  of  the  President  shall  not  exceed  fifteen  thousand  dollars  a  year. 

V.  After  the  third  day  of  March,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  thirteen,  the 
office  of  Vice-President  shall  cease.  And  the  Senate,  on  the  same  day  in  each 
year,  when  the  President  shall  be  annually  appointed,  shall  choose  a  Speaker; 
and  in  the  absence  of  the  Speaker,  or  when  he  shall  exercise  the  office  of  Presi- 
dent, the  Senate  shall  choose  a  Speaker  protempore. 

VI.  After  the  third  day  of  March,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  thirteen,  the 
President  shall  nominate,  and  by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate 
and  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  shall  appoint  Ambassadors,  other  public 
Ministers,  and  Consuls,  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Coui*t,  and  all  other  officers  of  the 
United  States  whose  appointments  are  not  herein  otherwise  provided  for,  and  which 
shall  be  established  by  law.  But  Congress  may,  by  law,  vest  the  appointment 
of  such  officers  as  they  think  proper,  in  the  President,  by  and  with  the  ad- 
vice and  consent  of  the  Senate ;  and  of  the  inferior  officers  in  the  President  alone, 
in  the  courts  of  law,  or  in  the  heads  of  departments.  But  no  law  vesting  the 
power  of  appointment  shall  be  for  a  longer  term  than  two  years.  All  proceedings 
on  nominations  shall  be  with  closed  doors,  and  without  debate ;  but  information 
of  the  character  and  qualifications  of  the  person  nominated  shall  be  received. 

VII.  After  the  third  day  of  March,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  thirteen, 
the  President  shall  have  power  to  fill  all  vacancies  that  may  happen  during  the 
recess  of  Congress,  by  granting  commissions,  which  shall  expire  at  the  end  of 
their  next  session.  No  removal  from  office  shall  take  place  without  the  consent 
of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives.  But  Congress  may,  by  law,  author- 
ize the  removal,  by  the  same  power  as  may,  by  law,  be  authorized  to  make  the 
appointment.  But  in  every  case  of  misconduct  in  office,  where  the  consent  of 
the  Senate,  or  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives,  shall  be  necessary  to  a 
removal,  the  President,  during  the  recess  of  Congress,  may  suspend  the  officer, 
and  make  a  temporary  appointment  of  a  person  to  exercise  the  office,  until  the 
next  meeting  of  Congress,  and  until  a  decision  can  be  had  by  the  Senate,  or  by 
the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives,  as  the  case  may  be,  on  a  question  for 
the  removal  of  the  officer  suspended.  All  proceedings  respecting  removal  from 
office  shall  be  had  without  debate,  upon  the  information  and  reasons  which  shall 
be  communicated  by  the  President,  and  with  closed  doors. 


22    ^  JAMES  HILLUOUSB. 

Federalists  and  RepublicaRS  never  divided  upon  the  elementary  principles 
of  government.  There  are  very  few  Americans  who  are  not  in  principle  at- 
tached to  a  free  republican  government ;  though  they  may  differ  on  minor 
points,  and  about  the  best  mode  of  organizing  it.  Persons  attached  to  mon- 
archy or  aristocracy  are  few  indeed,  they  are  but  as  the  dust  in  the  balance. 
No  one  in  his  sober  senses  can  believe  it  practicable,  or  politic  if  practicable 
to  use  either.  If  ever  introduced,  which  God  forbid,  it  must  be  done  at  the 
point  of  the  bayonet. 

He  referred  to  the  origin  of  parties  under  the  constitution,  and 
to  the  names  of  the  parties  then  existing,  and  said — "  The  supposed 
differences  are  more  imaginary  than  real.  Names  may,  and  some- 
times do,  deceive  ignorant,  uninformed  individuals,  but  these  names 
now  scarcely  do  that." 

Some  of  the  important  features  of  our  constitution  were  borrowed  from  a 
model  which  did  not  very  well  suit  our  condition.  I  mean  the  constitution 
and  government  of  England,  a  mixed  monarchy,  in  which  monarchy,  aris- 
tocracy and  democracy  are  so  combined  as  to  form  a  check  on  each  other. 
One  important  and  indispensable  requisite  of  such  a  government  is,  that  the 
two  first  branches  should  be  hereditary,  and  that  the  monarch  should  be  the 
fountain  of  honor  and  source  of  power.  In  the  United  States,  the  people  are 
the  source  of  all  power. 

Placing  in  the  hands  of  the  Chief  Magistrate,  who  depends  on  a  popular 
election,  prerogatives  and  powers  in  many  respects  equal  to — in  some,  ex- 
ceeding in  practice  those  exercised  by  the  King  of  Great  Britain,  is  one  of 
the  errors  of  the  constitution.  This  error  can  be  corrected  only  in  one  of 
two  ways  ;  either  the  office  must  be  stripped  of  those  high  prerogatives  and 
powers,  and  the  term  of  holding  the  office  shortened,  or  some  other  mode 
devised  than  a  popular  election,  for  appointing  a  President ;  otherwise  our 
country  must  perpetually  groan  under  the  scourge  of  party  rage  and  vio- 
lence ;  and  be  continually  exposed  to  that  worst  of  all  calamities,  civil  war. 

He  was  well  aware  that  he  had  engaged  in  a  difficult  under- 
taking, but  after  speaking  briefly  of  the  prejudices  and  interests 
which  were  in  his  way,  and  courteously  claiming  for  his  propo- 
sals a  deliberate  and  candid  hearing,  he  proceeded : 

A  prominent  feature  of  the  amendments  is,  to  shorten  the  term  of  service 
of  the  President,  Senators,  and  Representatives.  Observation  and  experi- 
ence having  convinced  me  that  in  an  elective  government,  long  terms  of  office 
and  high  compensations  do  not  tend  to  make  independent  public  servants, 
while  they  produce  an  anxious  solicitude  in  the  incumbents  to  keep  their 
places,  and  render  seekers  of  office  more  eager  to  obtain  them,  and  more  re- 
gardless of  the  means. 

My  first  amendment  goes  to  reduce  the  term  of  service  of  the  members  of 
the  House  of  Representatives  to  one  year. 

Ko  inconvenience  can  arise  from  this  arrangement,  because  there  is  a  con- 
stitutional provision  that  Congress  shall  assemble  once  in  every  year.  That 
body,  composed  of  the  immediate  representatives  of  the  people,  ought  to 
exhibit  a  fair  representation  of  their  sentiments  and  will ;  and  coming  fresh 
from  the  people  to  the  Congress  of  each  year,  will,  it  may  be  presumed,  fairly 
express  such  sentiments  and  will.  And  if,  in  an  interval  from  one  session  of 
Congress  to  another,  there  be  a  real  change  of  public  sentiment,  why  should 
not  that  change  be  expressed  ?  Will  an  attempt  in  their  representatives  to 
resist  it  tend  to  tranquillize  the  public  mind  ?  or  will  it  not,  Uke  persecution  in 
religion,  tend  to  make  proselytes  to  their  sentiments? 

Constitutions,  except  so  far  as  they  are  necessary  to  organize  the  several 
departments  of  government,  and  bring  the  public  functionaries  into  a  situa- 
tion to  deliberate  and  act — and  in  the  General  government  to  draw  the  line 


JiJStLES  HILLHOUSE.  23 

of  demarcation  between  that  and  the  State  governments,  to  prevent  interfer- 
ence and  coUisiou, — are  of  little  avail,  and  present  but  feeble  barriers  against 
the  public  will.  Whenever  a  measure  is  understood  and  believed  to  be  neces- 
sary to  promote  the  general  welfare,  the  people  will  not  fail  to  effect  it.  If 
they  cannot,  by  construction,  get  round  the  constitution,  they  will  by  an 
amendment,  go  directly  to  their  object.  The  danger  is  that  by  attempting 
to  extend  constitutional  restrictions  too  far,  unnatural  and  mischievous  exer- 
tions of  power  may  be  produced. 

The  application  of  this  last  remark  to  the  point  immediately  un- 
der  discussion  is,  that  if  the  Federal  Constitution  undertakes  to 
check  the  power  of  the  States  (that  is  of  the  people  in  the  States) 
over  their  own  united  government,  by  making  the  election  of  rep- 
resentatives  infrequent,  it  gives  occasion  and  temptation  to  "  unnat- 
ural and  mischievous  exertions  of  power."  If  the  people  are  not 
allowed  to  express  their  will  in  the  frequent  election  of  those  who 
are  to  be  the  organs  of  that  will,  they  will  naturally  resort  to  other 
and  irregular  methods.  But  without  making  this  application,  he 
proceeded : 

By  the  second  amendment,  the  term  of  service  of  the  senators  is  to  be  re- 
duced to  three  years ;  one-third  to  be  chosen  each  year.  *  *  * 
Senators  represent  the  rights  and  interests  of  States  in  respect  to  their 
sovereignty.  In  them,  therefore,  the  States  ought  to  feel  a  confidence.  And 
this  confidence  will  rather  be  increased  than  lessened  by  shortening  the  term 
of  service  to  three  years.  Shall  I  be  told  that  the  legislatures  of  the  States 
are  not  to  be  relied  on  for  their  stability  and  patriotism?  that  it  would  be 
unsafe,  every  third  year  to  trust  them  with  the  appointment  of  their  sena- 
tors ?  No,  surely.  The  several  States  are  the  pillars  on  which  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States  rests,  and  imist  rest.  If  these  pillars  are  not  sound 
— if  they  are  composed  of  feeble,  frail  materials,  then  must  the  General  gov- 
ernment moulder  into  ruin.  This,  however,  is  not  my  belief.  I  have  con- 
fidence in  the  State  governments.  I  am  for  keeping  them  in  their  full  vi- 
gor and  strength.  For  if  any  disaster  befalls  the  General  government, 
the  States,  having  within  their  respective  spheres  all  the  power  of  indepen- 
dent governments,  will  be  the  arks  of  safety  to  which  the  citizens  can  flee 
for  protection  from  anarchy  and  the  horrid  evils  which  follow  in  its  train. 
I  have  therefore  uniformly  been  opposed  to  measures  which  had  the  remo- 
test tendency  to  their  consolidation.                   *                     *                     * 

The  third  amendment  provides  for  the  appointment  of  a  President.  He 
is  to  be  taken  by  lot  from  the  Senate,  and  is  to  hold  his  office  for  one  year. 

Of  course,  he  could  not  but  acknowledge  that  this  mode  of  selec- 
tion  was  liable  to  obvious  objections.  He  would  not  have  proposed 
it  "if  any  other  could  have  been  devised  which  would  not  convulse 
the  whole  body  politic,  set  wide  open  the  door  to  intrigue  and  ca- 
bal, and  bring  upon  the  nation  incalculable  evils,  evils  already  felt 
and  growing  much  more  serious."  The  two  objections  which  he 
undertook  to  answer  were,  first,  that  this  mode  of  selection  *'  is  a 
departure  from  the  elective  'principle,^  and,  secondly,  " that  it  will 
not  always  ensure  the  best  talents."  The  answer  to  both  these 
objections  is  involved  in  the  progress  of  his  argument. 

When  senators  shall  be  chosen  with  an  eye  to  this  provision,  every  State 
will  be  anxious  to  make  such  a  selection  of  persons  as  will  not  disgrace  it  in  the 
eventual  elevation  of  one  gf  them  to  the  Presidential  chair.    Every  State 


g4  JAMES  iniLHOUSS. 

legislature  would,  in  the  choice  of  the  senator,  consider  itself  as  nominating 
a  candidate  for  the  Presidency.  The  effect  of  this  arrangement  would  be,  in 
reality,  that  instead  of  the  States  appointing  Electors  to  choose  a  President, 
the  legislatures  themselves  would  become  the  Electors,  with  this  advantage, 
that  the  nomination  would  be  made  when  not  under  the  influence  of  a  Presi- 
dential electioneering  fever.  In  the  regular  course  of  appointing  senators, 
only  one  nomination  would  be  made  at  one  time  in  each  State ;  and,  in  most 
cases,  three  years  would  elapse  before  he  could  be  designated  for  the  Presi- 
dency. The  great  caution  in  the  selection  of  senators,  with  a  reference  to 
that  high  office,  would  produce  another  excellent  effect :  it  would  ensure  the 
continuance  in  that  body  of  men  of  the  most  respectable  talents  and  educa- 
tion— an  object  of  the  highest  importance  to  the  general  welfare. 

The  two  objections  "are  disposed  of ;  the  first  by  showing  that, 
under  the  existing  constitution,  whenever  the  House  of  Represen- 
tatives, voting  by  States,  selects  a  President  from  among  three  of 
the  candidates  from  the  Electoral  colleges,  the  departure  from  the 
elective  principle  is  hardly  less  than  if  a  President  were  to  be  de- 
signated by  lot  from  among  a  larger  yet  carefully  selected  number 
of  candidates  ; — and  the  second,  by  showing  that  if  every  sena- 
tor were  to  be  selected  with  reference  to  the  contingency  of  his 
serving  in  the  chief  executive  office  of  the  government,  men  of 
inferior  ability  would  naturally  be  excluded  from  the  Senate;  that 
under  the  present  system  there  is  the  same  possibility  of  having  a 
President  neither  distinguished  for  talents  nor  for  integrity,  and  the 
further  danger  of  having  one  of  that  sort,  who,  instead  of  going  out 
of  office  at  the  end  of  a  year,  will  be  President  for  four  years  ;  and 
that  the  eminent  talents  and  experience  of  subordinate  functiona- 
ries,  such  as  the  heads  of  departments,  will  be  no  less  available, 
and  no  more  necessary  to  a  President  thus  appointed  for  one  year 
than  they  now  are  to  a  President  appointed  in  conformity  with  the 
constitution  as  it  is. 

Having  disposed  of  the  objections  to  his  plan,  the  Senator  pro- 
ceeded  to  exhibit  in  a  more  positive  way  some  of  the  dangers 
inseparable  from  that  part  of  the  Constitution  which  he  was  pro- 
posing to  amend.  Whether  those  dangers  are  real,  and  whether 
they  are  on  the  whole  less  threatening  now  than  they  were  fifty 
years  ago,  are  questions  on  which,  perhaps,  there  is  room  for  a  dif- 
ference of  opinion  among  thoughtful  and  patriotic  minds. 

The  office  of  President  is  the  only  one  in  our  goverjiment  clothed  with  such 
powers  as  might  endanger  Uberty,  and  I  am  not  without  apprehension  that, 
at  some  future  period,  they  may  be  exerted  to  overthrow  the  liberties  of  our 
country.  The  change  from  four  to  ten  years  is  small ;  the  next  step  would 
be  from  ten  years  to  life,  and  then  to  the  nomination  of  a  successor,  from 
which  the  transition  to  an  hereditary  monarchy  would  almost  follow  of  course. 
The  exigencies  of  the  country,  the  public  safety,  and  the  means  of  defense 
against  foreign  invasion,  may  place  m  the  hands  of  an  ambitious,  daring 
President,  an  army  of  which  he  would  be  the  legitimate  commander,  and  with 
which  he  might  enforce  his  claim.    This  may  not  Jiappen  in  my  day ;  it  prob- 


JAMES  HILLHOUSlL  05 

ably  will  not ;  but  I  have  children  whom  I  love,  and  whom  I  expect  to  leave 
behind  me  to  share  in  the  destinies  of  our  common  country.  I  cannot  there- 
fore feel  indifferent  to  what  may  befall  them,  and  generations  yet  unborn. 

After  showino-  in  a  few  words  that  his  proposed  amendments  in 

regard  to  the  Presidential  office  would  "render  it  impossible  to 

bring  the  high  prerogatives  of  this  office  to  aid  in  procuring  it,"  he 

went  on  to  say — 

Of  the  impropriety  and  impolicy  of  the  present  mode  of  electing  a  Presi- 
dent, can  there  be  stronger  proof,  can  there  be  more  convincing  evidence, 
than  is  now  exhibiting  in  the  United  States  ?  In  whatever  direction  we  turn 
our  eyes,  we  behold  the  people  arranging  themselves  for  the  purpose  of  com- 
mencing the  electioneering  campaign  for  the  next  President  and  Vice  Presi- 
dent. All  the  passions  and  feelings  of  the  human  heart  are  brought  into  the 
most  active  operation.  The  electioneering  spirit  finds  its  way  to  every  fire- 
side ;  pervades  our  domestic  circles,  and  threatens  to  destroy  the  enjoyment 
of  social  harmony.  The  seeds  of  discord  will  be  sown  in  families,  among 
friends,  and  throughout  the  whole  community.  In  saying  this,  I  do  not  mean 
anything  to  the  disadvantage  of  either  of  the  candidates.  They  may  have 
no  agency  in  the  business.  They  may  be  the  involuntary  objects  of  such 
competition,  without  the  power  of  directing  or  controUng  the  storm.  The 
fault  is  in  the  mode  of  election,  in  setting  the  people  to  choose  a  King.  In 
fact,  a  popular  election,  and  the  exercise  of  such  powers  and  prerogatives  as 
are  by  the  Constitution  vested  in  the  President,  are  incompatible.  The  evil 
is  increasing  and  will  increase,  until  it  shall  terminate  in  civil  war  and  despo- 
tism. The  people,  suffering  under  the  scourge  of  party  feuds  and  factions, 
and  finding  no  refuge  under  the  State,  any  more  than  in  the  General  govern-' 
ment,  from  party  persecution  and  oppression,  may  become  impatient,  and 
submit  to  the  first  tyrant  who  can  protect  them  against  the  thousand  tyrants. 
*  *  *  *  *  * 

Reducing  the  Presidential  term  of  service  to  one  year,  will  remove  the  ne- 
cessity of  attaching  to  the  office  the  splendor  of  a  palace.  The  simplicity  of 
ancient  republics  would  better  suit  the  nature  of  our  government.  The  in- 
stances of  persons  called  from  the  plough  to  command  armies,  or  to  preside 
over  the  public  councils,  show  that  in  a  republic  pomp  and  splendor  are  not 
necessary  to  real  dignity.  Cincinnatus,  who  was  content  with  the  scanty 
support  derived  from  tilling,  with  his  own  hands,  his  four-acre  farm,  has  been 
as  celebrated  in  history  as  the  most  splendid  monarchs.  By  these  remarks  I 
would  not  be  undei'stood  to  object  against  giving  adequate  salaries  to  all  pub- 
lic functionaries.  In  the  case  of  subordinate  officers,  it  may  be  left  to  legis- 
lative discretion.  But  the  President,  having  such  great  power  and  extensive 
influence,  his  compensation  ought  to  have  a  constitutional  limit,  and  not  ex- 
ceed fifteen  thousand  dollars. 

It  is  chiefly  for  thesake  of  illustrating  the  character  of  the  man 
that  these  extended  quotations  have  been  given.  A  naked  state- 
ment of  his  proposal,  unaccompanied  by  any  of  his  own  explana- 
tions, might  make  upon  some  minds  a  very  false  impression.  He 
was  not  a  visionary  statesman,  like  those  who  in  their  closets  frame 
ingenious  schemes  of  government  for  Utopian  commonwealths. 
Nor  was  he  one  of  those  who  have  a  passion  for  pulling  down  the 
fabric  of  existing  institutions  for  the  sake  of  some  new-fangled 
reconstruction.  His  genius  was  conservative  rather  than  revolu- 
tionary, and  practical  rather  than  speculative.  The  reasons  and 
explanations  which  he  offered  in  his  speech,  and  which  have  been 


26  JAMES  HILLHOUSS. 

spread  before  the  readers  of  this  memoir,  show  the  conservative 
and  practical  character  of  his  mind.  He  had  observed  with  deep 
insight,  and  with  far  reaching  foresight,  the  working  of  those  con- 
stitutional arrangements  which  he  proposed  to  amend.  He  saw 
in  the  ever  widening  vortex  of  Presidential  power  and  patronage, 
and  in  the  ever  returning  agitation  of  Presidential  elections,  a 
force  that  threatened  to  engulf  the  independent  self-government  of 
the  States  within  their  separate  sovereignties  ;  and  he  desired  such  a 
modification  of  the  system  as  should  effectually  remove  that  danger. 
More  than  twenty  years  afterwards,  when  he  had  retired  from 
all  his  public  employments,  he  opened  a  correspondence  with  some 
of  the  most  eminent  survivors  of  his  own  generation,  asking  their 
views  of  his  proposed  remedy  for  what  had  so  long  seemed  to  him 
the  chief  infirmity  of  the  Federal  Constitution.  Large  portions 
of  the  replies  which  he  received  from  President  Madison,  Chief 
Justice  Marshall,  Chancellor  Kent,  and  Mr.  Crawford,  who  had 
been  contemporary  with  him  in  the  Senate,  and  afterwards  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury  under  President  Monroe,  were  communica- 
ted to  the  New  York  Historical  Society  in  1848,  by  James  H. 
Raymond,  Esq.,  and  were  published  in  the  proceedings  of  the 
Society  for  that  year.  Mr.  Madison,  as  might  be  anticipated  from  the 
part  which  he  had  taken  in  the  formation  of  the  Constitution,  and 
from  his  long  familiarity  with  the  exercise  of  executive  power  in 
the  highest  offices  of  government,  felt  strongly  and  represented 
with  much  clearness  and  force  the  obvious  objections  to  the  bold 
and  sweeping  change  proposed  by  Mr.  Hillhouse.  Chief  Justice 
Marshall  acknowledged  that  in  1830  (the  date  of  the  correspon- 
dence,) '  his  views  of  this  subject  had  changed  a  good  deal  since 
1808.'  He  '  considered  it,  however,  rather  as  an  affair  of  curious 
speculation  than  of  probable  fact.'  "  Your  plan,"  said  he,  "comes 
in  conflict  with  so  many  opposing  interests  and  deep-rooted  preju- 
dices, that  I  would  despair  of  its  success,  were  its  ability  still  more 
apparent  than  it  is."  After  intimating  that  "we  must  proceed 
with  our  present  system  till  its  evils  become  still  more  obvious," 
he  proceeded  as  follows  : 

My  own  private  mind  has  been  slowly  and  reluctantly  advancing  to  the  be- 
lief that  the  present  mode  of  choosing  the  chief  magistrate  threatens  the 
most  serious  danger  to  the  public  happiness.  The  passions  of  men  are  in- 
flamed to  so  fearful  an  extent,  large  masses  are  so  embittered  against  each 
other,  that  I  dread  the  consequences.  The  election  agitates  every  section  of 
the  United  States,  and  the  ferment  is  never  to  subside.  Scarcely  is  a  Presi- 
dent elected,  before  the  machinations  respecting  a  successor  commence. 
Every  political  question  is  affected  by  it.  All  those  who  are  in  office,  all  those 
who  want  office,  are  put  in  motion.  The  angriest,  I  might  say  the  worst  pas- 
sions are  roused  and  put  into  full  activity.    Vast  masses,  united  closely,  mov© 


JAMES  HIIJ.HOUSB.  ^7 

in  opposite  directions,  animated  with  the  most  hostile  feelings  towards  each 
other.  What  is  to  be  the  effect  of  all  this  'i  Age  is,  perhaps,  unreasonably 
timid.  Certain  it  is,  that  I  now  dread  consequences  which  I  once  thought 
linaginary.  I  feel  disposed  to  take  refuge  under  some  less  turbulent  and  less 
dangerous  mode  of  choosing  the  chief  magistrate,  and  my  mind  suggests 
none  less  objectionable  than  that  you  have  proposed.  We  shall  no 
longer  be  enlisted  under  the  banners  of  particular  men.  Strife  will  no  longer 
be  excited,  when  it  can  no  longer  affect  its  object.  Neither  the  people  at 
large,  nor  the  councils  of  the  nation,  will  be  agitated  by  the  all-disturbing 
question, — Who  shall  be  President  ?  Yet  he  will,  in  truth,  be  chosen  substan- 
tially by  the  people.  The  Senators  must  always  be  among  the  most  able  men 
of  the  States.  Though  not  appointed  for  the  particular  purpose,  they  must 
always  be  appointed  for  important  purposes,  and  must  possess  a  large  share 
of  the  pubUc  confidence.  If  the  people  of  the  United  States  were  to  elect  as 
many  persons  as  compose  one  senatorial  class,  and  the  President  was  to  be 
chosen  among  them  by  lot,  in  the  manner  you  propose,  he  would  be  substan- 
tially elected  by  the  people ;  and  yet  such  a  mode  of  election  would  be  re- 
commended by  no  advantages  which  your  plan  does  not  possess.  In  many 
respects  it  would  be  less  eligible. 

Reasoning  a  priori,  I  should  undoubtedly  pronounce  the  system  adopted  by 
the  Convention,  the  best  that  could  be  devised.  Judgiog  from  experience,  I 
am  driven  to  a  different  conclusion. 

Chancellor  Kent  wrote  in  the  same  vein  of  thought.  He  said 
of  "the  popular  election  of  the  President,"  (which,  by  the  way, 
was  not  intended  by  the  framersof  the  Constitution*)  "  it  is  that  part 
of  the  machine  of  our  government  that  I  am  afraid  is  doomed  to 
destroy  us."  "Our  plan  of  election  of  a  President,  I  apprehend, 
has  failed  of  its  purpose,  as  it  was  presumed  and  foretold  that  it 
would  fail  by  some  of  the  profoundest  statesmen  of  1787.  We 
cannot  but  perceive  that  this  very  presidential  question  has  already 
disturbed  and  corrupted  the  administration  of  the  government,  and 
cherishes  intrigue,  duplicity,  abuse  of  power,  and  corrupt  and 
arbitrary  measures."  "  Your  reflections  are  sage,  patriotic,  and 
denote  a  deep  and  just  knowledge  of  government  and  man." 

Mr.  Crawford's  letter  records  the  fact  that  he  seconded  in  the 
Senate  Mr.  Hillhouse's  resolution  proposing  his  amendments  of 
the  Constitution,  though  at  that  time  he  had  not  made  up  his  mind 
definitely  upon  the  principle  of  the  amendments.  But  subsequent 
"  reflection  and  experience"  had  convinced  him.  He  went  on  to 
say — . 

*  Did  the  framers  of  the  Constitution  expect  that,  in  less  than  half  a  century, 
the  colleges  of  Electors,  assembling  in  their  several  States  ostensibly  for  the  per- 
formance of  a  duty  requiring  the  highest  wisdom  and  the  most  enlarged  patriot- 
ism, would  have  no  other  function  than  simply  to  register  the  decrees  of  party 
conventions — a  function  to  which  any  man  with  intelligence  enough  to  write  his 
name,  and  honesty  enough  to  keep  out  of  the  penitentiary,  would  be  perfectly 
competent  ?  Was  it  their  intention  that  the  several  Electoral  colleges,  in  the  per- 
formance of  their  high  duty,  would  have  precisely  the  same  liberty  of  choice 
with  the  dean  and  chapter  of  an  English  cathedral  in  the  election  of  a  bishop  -vvho 
has  already  received  the  appointment  from  the  Crown,  and  Avhom  they  cannot 
refuse  to  vote  for  without  incurring  the  penalties  of  a  premunire  f 


28  JAMES  niLLHOUSB 

I  am  now  entirely  convinced  that  great  talents  are  not  necessary  for  the 
chief  magistracy  of  this  nation.  A  moderate  share  of  talents,  with  integrity 
of  character  and  conduct,  is  all  that  is  necessary.  Under  the  principle  of 
your  amendment,  I  think  there  is  little  probability  that  a  President  would  be 

elected,  weaker  than  Col. ,  or  with  less  practical  common  sense  than 

Mr. .     But  I  am  not  certain  that  the  nation  is  prepared  for  such  an 

amendment.  There  is  something  fascinating  in  the  idea  of  selecting  the  best 
talents  in  the  nation  for  the  chief  magistrate  of  the  Union.  The  view  which 
ought  to  decide  in  favor  of  the  principle  of  your  amendment,  is  seldom  taken. 
The  true  view  is  this  :  elective  chief  magistrates  are  not,  and  cannot,  in  the 
nature  of  things,  be  the  best  men  in  the  nation  ;  while  such  elections  never 
fail  to  produce  mischief  to  the  nation.  The  evils  of  such  elections  have 
generally  induced  civilized  nations  to  submit  to  hereditary  monarchy. 
Now  the  evil  which  is  incident  to  this  form  of  government,  is  that  of  having 
the  oldest  son  of  the  monarch  for  ruler,  whether  he  is  a  fool,  a  rascal,  or  a 
madman.  I  think  no  man  who  will  reflect  coolly  upon  the  subject,  but  would 
prefer  a  President  chosen  by  lot  out  of  the  Senate,  to  running  the  risk  of 
having  a  fool,  a  rascal,  or  a  madman,  in  the  oldest  son  of  the  wisest  and  most 
benevolent  sovereign  that  ever  Uved.  When  the  amendment  is  considered  in 
this  point  of  view  I  think  it  will  find  favor,  especially  when  it  must  be  admit- 
ted that  the  election  of  a  President  in  this  manner  will  be  productive  of 
as  little  turmoil  and  agitation  as  the  accession  of  the  son  to  the  lather  in 
hereditary  monarchies.  The  more  I  reflect  upon  the  subject,  the  more  I  am 
in  favor  of  your  amendment. 

Mr.  Hillhouse,  after  fourteen  years  of  service  in  the  Senate, 
resigned  his  seat  that  he  might  accept  a  new  and  more  arduous 
trust  to  which  he  was  invited  by  his  native  State,  and  for  which  he 
was  eminently  qualified  by  his  peculiar  talents,  his  great  experi- 
ence, and  his  high  character  for  disinterestedness  and  public  spirit 
as  well  as  for  strict  fidelity  to  every  duty. 

The  royal  charters  which  had  defined  the  boundaries  of  the 
States  while  they  were  colonies,  gave  to  several  of  them,  and  to 
Connecticut  among  others,  "  the  South  Sea,"  or  Pacific  Ocean,  for 
a  western  limit.  In  1786,  while  Virginia  and  other  States  were 
marking  their  western  boundaries  at  their  own  discretion,  and  ceding 
to  Congress,  with  various  reservations,  their  claims  to  territories 
farther  west,  the  State  of  Connecticut,  by  its  deed  of  cession, 
reserved  to  itself  a  new  Connecticut  on  the  southern  shore  of  Lake 
Erie,  of  the  same  length,  and  between  the  same  parallels  of  lati- 
itude,  with  the  old  Connecticut  on  the  northern  shore  of  Long 
Island  Sound.  A  portion  of  the  lands  thus  reserved  was  appro- 
priated  to  indemnify  the  inhabitants  of  those  towns  which  had  been 
wholly  or  partially  destroyed  by  the  British  forces  in  the  war  of 
the  revolution.  In  May,  1795,  the  legislature  made  arrangements 
for  the  sale  of  the  remainder,  (not  far  from  3,300,000  acres  in 
extent)  by  a  commission  of  eight  persons  appointed  for  that  pur- 
pose,  the  Hon.  John  Treadwell  being  chairman.  By  the  same 
legislature  it  was  ordained  that  the  avails  should  constitute  a  per- 
manent fund  for  the  support  of  those  common  schools  which  had 
been  from  the  beginning  a  characteristic  institution  of  New  Eng- 


JAME3  HILLHOUSB.  29 

land.  At  the  October  session  of  the  same  year,  the  commissioners 
reported  that  the  land  had  been  sold  to  a  company  of  capitalists 
for  the  sum  of  1,200,000  dollars,  payable  in  five  years,  with  annu- 
al interest  after  the  expiration  of  two  years.  The.  fund  thus  es- 
tablished was  continued  in  the  care  of  the  original  commissioners 
till  the  year  1800,  when  payment  from  the  purchasers. of  the 
Reserve  became  due.  At  that  time  Mr.  Treadwell,  afterwards 
governor,  and  four  others,  including  the  State  Treasurer  for  the 
time  being,  were  appointed  "  Managers  of  the  funds  arising  on  the 
sales  of  the  Western  Reserve,"  an  arrangement  which  continued 
ten  years.  But  notwithstanding  the  unquestioned  fidelity  of  those 
"  Managers,"  the  expectations  with  which  the  fund  was  instituted 
had  not  been  realized.  The  payments  of  interest  which  began  to 
be  due  in  1797,  instead  of  being  872,000  annually,  as  they  should 
have  been  according  to  the  conditions  of  the  sale,  fell  so  far  short, 
that  in  thirteen  years  the  average  amount  that  had  been  annually 
distributed  for  the  support  of  schools,  was  less  than  half  the  legal 
interest  of  the  capital.  From  the  report  of  the  Managers  to  the 
legislature,  at  the  October  session  in  1809,  it  appeared  that  not 
only  that  large  amount  of  interest  remained  unpaid,  but  that  con- 
siderable portions  of  the  capital,  also,  were  in  danger  of  being  lost  by 
the  failure  of  collateral  securities.  A  committee,  of  which  the 
Hon.  David  Daggett  was  chairman,  recommended  that  the  fund 
should  be  entrusted  to  the  care  and  control  of  pne  man ;  and  at 
the  next  session,  in  May,  1810,  after  due  deliberation  by  the  peo- 
ple as  well  as  by  their  representatives,  the  office  of"  Commissioner 
of  the  School  Fund"  was  created  ;  and  the  Board  of  Managers 
was  abolished. 

As  Mr.  Hillhouse  was  wont  to  say* that  the  office  of  President 
of  the  United  States  was  made  for  George  Washington,  so  we  may 
say  that  in  Connecticut  the  office  of  "  Commissioner  of  the  School 
Fund"  was  created  at  that  juncture  because  all  eyes  were  turned 
toward  one  man  as  singularly  competent  to  so  great  and  delicate 
a  trust.  The  committee  by  whom  the  change  of  system  in  the 
management  of  the  Fund  was  proposed  to  the  legislature,  had  no 
other  thought  thail  of  that  one  man  to  undertake  the  arduous 
work.  Accordingly,  when  Mr.  Hillhouse  returned  from  Wash- 
ington, after  the  adjournment  of  Congress,  (which  took  place  that 
year  on  the  first  of  May)  he  was  met  by  a  call  to  this  new  office. 
He  accepted  the  office,  and  his  successor  in  the  Senate  (Hon  Sam- 
uel W.  Dana)  was  appointed  at  the  same  session  of  the  legislature. 

.The  condition  of  the  School  Fund,  when  it  was  committed  to 


30  JAMES  HILLHOUSB. 

his  care,  has  already  been  described  in  part ;  but  the  difficulty  of 
his  task  and  the  greatness  of  his  success  cannot  be  appreciated 
without  a  more  complete  statement  on  this  point.  Such  a  state- 
ment was  made,  not  long  after  the  death  of  Mr.  Hillhouse,  by  the 
late  Hon.  Roger  Minott  Sherman,  in  a  paper  which  he  drew  up 
with  the  expectation  that  it  would  be  presented  to  the  legislature. 
According  to  that  well-considered  statement,  in  which  every  word 
was  measured  with  the  accuracy  so  characteristic  of  the  author, 
the  Fund,  in  1810,  "  had  so  diminished  in  value  as  to  excite  in  the 
minds  of  the  people  a  serious  apprehension  that  in  a  few  years  it 
would  become  comparatively  useless,  if  not  utterly  extinct.  It 
consisted  chiefly  of  the  debts  due  from  the  original  purchasers  of 
the  Western  Reserve,  and  those  substituted  securities  which  had 
been  accepted  in  their  stead.  A  great  proportion  rested  on  mere 
personal  security,  and  in  the  course  of  nearly  twenty  years,  by 
death,  insolvency,  and  -the  many  other  changes  to  which  human 
affairs  are  subject,  its  actual  value  fell  far  short  of  its  nominal 
amount.  The  interest  had  fallen  greatly  in  arrear,  and  in  many 
instances  nearly  equalled  the  principal.  The  debtors  were  dis- 
persed in  different  States,  and  over  a  territory  several  hundred 
miles  in  extent ;  and  such  were  the  embarrassments  of  very  many, 
and  the  complicated  derangement  of  their  affairs,  that  little  but 
their  ruin  and  the  loss  of  the  claims  of  the  State  could  be  expected 
from  legal  coercion."  It  may  be  added,  to  illustrate  still  further 
the  complicated  nature  of  the  work  that  was  to  be  done,  that  the 
thirty-six  bonds  amounting  in  the  aggregate  to  $1,200,000,  which 
were  given  by  the  original  purchasers  of  the  Reserve,  and  which 
were  the  original  investment  of  the  Fund,  had  become,  by  the 
process  of  payment  and  reinvestment  or  by  other  modes  of  sub- 
stitution, nearly  five  hundred  in  number  ;  and  that,  so  far  as  they 
rested  on  any  other  than  personal  security,  they  were  secured  by 
mortgages  on  lands  distributed  through  Connecticut,  Massachu- 
setts, New  York,  and  the  Western  Reserve.  Such  was  the  trust 
which  the  State  committed  to  his  fidelity.  So  difficult,  so  compli- 
cated, so  laborious,  so  delicate  in  many  of  its  relations,  was  the 
work  which  he  undertook  for  the  State,  and  which  employed  his 
time  and  strength  unremittingly  through  a  period  of  fifteen  years. 
For  the  first  year  of  his  service  in  that  trust,  his  salary  was  only 
one  thousand  dollars.  Afterwards  he  received  fifteen  hundred 
dollars  annually,  till  October,  1818,  when  the  compensation  for 
his  services  was  reduced  to  one  thousand  dollars,  ancl  so  continued 
till  his  retirement  from  office.     The  State  of  Connecticut  has 


JAMES  HILLHOUSB.  3  J 

never  been  celebrated  for  the  munificence  of  its  compensation  to 
public  officers ;  but  we  may  doubt  whether  such  services  of  those 
of  James  Hillhouse,  in  so  responsible  a  trust,  were  ever  rendered, 
even  in  Connecticut,  for  so  slight  a  compensation.  If  the  School 
Fund,  in  the  condition  in  which  it  was  when  he  received  the  trust, 
had  been  a  private  estate,  to  be  settled,  invested  and  managed  for 
the  same  period  of  time,  what  would  have,  been  the  compensation 
of  a  competent  trustee  ? 

In  what  manner,  and  with  what  measure  of  success,  Mr,  Hill- 
house  performed  the  work  which  he  had  undertaken  for  the  State, 
cannot  be  better  described  than  by  quoting  from  the  document 
already  referred  to,  the  words  of  the  late  Judge  Sherman..  "  He 
accepted  the  office  and  held  it  until  his  resignation  in  1825 — a 
period  of  fifteen  years.  In  this  period,  without  a  single  litigated 
suit,  or  a  dollar  paid  for  counsel,  he  restored  the  Fund  to  safety 
and  order — rendered  it  productive  of  large  and  increasing  annual 
dividends,  and  left  it  augmented  to  seventeen  hundred  thousand  dol- 
lars, of  well  secured  and  solid  capital.  During  his  administra- 
tion of  the  School  Fund  he  attended  to  little  else.  At  all  seasons 
of  the  year,  however  inclement,  he  journeyed  over  the  extensive 
country  through  which  his  cares  were  dispersed — guarded  the 
public  land  from  depredation, — made  himself  familiar  with 
every  debtor  and  the  state  of  his  property — and  by  indefatigable 
labor,  and  by  kind  attention  and  assistance,  improved  the  cir- 
cumstances of  improvident  debtors,  through  the  very  measures 
which  he  pursued  for  the  security  of  the  Fund.  Many  fam- 
ilies, and  among  them  the  widows  and  the  orphans  of  deceased 
debtors,  whose  property  had  become  incumbered  by  mortgages 
contracts  and  speculations,  and  their  hopes  broken,  and  their  exer- 
tions paralyzed,  by  the  apparently  inextricable  condition  of  their 
affairs,  were  restored  to  easy  circumstances  by  his  wise  disposition 
of  their  property  and  adjustment  of  their  concerns.  All  his  ope- 
rations were  characterized  by  a  benevolent  regard  to  individual 
interest,  and  an  enthusiastic  devotion  to  the  public  good." 

The  relation  of  debtor  and  creditor  is  not  favorable  to  friend- 
ship, especially  when  the  debtor  is  bankrupt  or  on  the  verge  of 
bankruptcy,  and  the  creditor  is  secured  by  mortgages  and  obliga- 
tions which  cannot  be  met  without  a  serious  loss.  But  Mr.  Hill- 
house  made  the  debtors  of  the  School  Fund  friends,  by  making 
himself  their  friend.  Instead  of  acting  against  them  as  the  mere 
attorney  of  an  adverse  party,  he  was  their  adviser,  and  acted  with 
them  and  for  them.  The  forbearance  which  he  (with  powers 
almost  unlimited,  save  by  his  own  fidelity  to  his  trust)  was  able  to 


82  JAMES  HILLHOUSE 

exercise  towards  embarrassed  but  honest  debtors, — the  legal  and 
financial  counsel  which  he  was  so  well  qualified  to  give,  and  the 
aid  which,  in  one  way  or  another,  he  could  so  often  render  when 

the  claims  of  other  creditors  were  pressed  too  urgently were  all 

at  the  service  of  his  great  and  kindly  heart.  Thus  while  he  was 
far  more  careful  for  the  safbty  of  the  Fund  than  if  it  had  been  his 
own,  he  became  the  benefactor  of  debtors  who  could  not  have 
extricated  themselves  from  their  embarrassments  by  any  efforts 
of  their  own,  and  in  whose  final  insolvency  the  State  would  have 
been  a  losing  creditor.  In  some  remarkable  instances,  the  aid 
which  he  gave  to  embarrassed  debtors  of  the  Fund  in  the  settle- 
ment of  their  affairs,  was  acknowledged  with  a  gratitude  which 
deserves  a  distinct  commemoration. 

Among  the  original   purchasers  of  the  Western  Reserve,  the 
names  of  Oliver  Phelps  and  Gideon  Granger  are  conspicuous. 
Mr.  Phelps  was  the  agent  of  the  company  by  which  the  purchase 
was  efTected  ;  and  of  the  thirty-six  subscriptions  to  the  capital  of 
twelve  hundred  thousand  dollars,  one  of  eighty  thousand  was  the 
joint  subscription  of  Phelps  and  Granger,  and  another  of  more 
than  one  hundred  and  sixty-eight  thousand  was  in  the  name  of 
Phelps  alone.      Of  the  remaining  subscriptions,  three,  from   as 
many  individuals,  were  of  sixty  thousand  each,  and  all  the  others 
were  in  various  amounts  from  nearly  fifty-eight  thousand  down  to 
less  than  seventeen  hundred.     Twenty-five  years  later,  the  ex- 
pected results  of  the  speculation  on  the  part  of  Messrs.  Phelps 
and  Granger  had  not  been  realized,  and  the  aggregate  of  their 
original   indebtedness  to  the  School  Fund,  great  as  it  was  at   the 
beginning,  had  greatly  increased.     Harassed  by  other  creditors, 
Mr.  Phelps,  though  rich  in  lands  that  could  not  be  converted  into 
money,  had  died  while  imprisoned  for  debt.     How  his  embarrassed 
affairs  were  settled  after  his  death,  how  the  School  Fund  was  kept 
unharmed,  is  best  described   by  Judge  Sherman.     "  His  debt  to 
the  School  Fund,  including  a  balance  due  from  his  son,  was  nearly 
tliree  hundred  thousand  dollars.     He  left  an  extensive  property  in 
new  lands,  but  was  deeply  in  debt  at  the  time  of  his  decease,  and 
had  suspended  payment,  until  his  arrears  of  interest  to  this  State, 
which   had  been  accumulating  for  ten  years,   exceeded  fifty-six 
thousand  dollars.     His  immense  real  estate  was  heavily  encum- 
bered with  mortgages,  and  so  involved  and  perplexed  with  execu- 
tory contracts  and  unperfected  titles,  as  seemed  to  defy  any  attempt 
at  extrication,  and  render  the  claims  of  this  State  and  other  credit- 
ors apparently  hopeless.     But  nothing  which  human  effort  could 


JAMES  HILLHOUSE.  33 

tend  to  surmount,  ever  discouraged  Mr.  Hillhouse.  Great  obsta- 
cles seemed  but  to  inspirit  his  resolution  and  give  vigor  to  his  ex- 
ertions. The  condition  of  this  estate  had  baffled  the  efforts  and 
appalled  the  heart  of  its  enterprising  proprietor,  and  saddened  his 
last  days  with  embarrassment  and  despondency.  But  Mr.  Hill- 
house  went  into  the  western  country  where  it  lay,  and  by  long, 
laborious,  and  patient  exertions  night  and  day,  he  threaded  all  its 
labyrinths,  cleared  off  every  embarrassment,  paid  up  in  full  the 
debt  to  the  School  Fund  and  the  claims  of  every  other  cred- 
itor, dealt  out  perfect  justice  to  every  party  in  interest,  and 
restored  the  widow  and  orphan  children  of  Mr.  Phelps  to  comfort 
and  affluence.  A  large  ledger  is  filled  with  the  numerous  accounts 
of  sales,  payments  and  settlements  which  arose  in  the  course  of 
the  transactions." 

How  much  he  gained  for  the  State  by  all  this  extra-official  labor 
performed  in  the  interest  of  what  some  would  have  regarded  as 
the  adverse  party,  let  Judge  Sherman  tell.  "So  much  were  the 
family  of  Mr.  Phelps  benefited  by  the  services  which  he  rendered 
them,  beyond  what  "the  interests  of  this  State  required,  that  besides 
paying  all  the  expenses  incident  to  the  operation  in  searching 
records,  foreclosing  mortgages,  defraying  taxes,  paying  agents, 
&c.,  they  allowed  compound  interest  on  the  School  Fund  debt, 
which  exceeded  more  than  fourteen  thousand  five  hundred  dollars, 
the  amount  which  could  have  been  recovered  by  law.  He  placed 
the  demand  of  the  State,  which  had  been  deemed  almost  worth- 
less, on  an  interest  of  seven  per  cent.,  amply  secured  by  hoods  and 
mortgages." 

But  the  concession  of  compound  interest  on  the  great  and  long 
deferred  indebtedness  of  that  estate  to  the  Connecticut  School 
Fund,  did  not  satisfy  in  the.  heirs  the  sense  of  their  obligation  to 
their  benefactor.  "  The  family  of  Mr.  Phelps  had  once  been  in 
affluence,  but  had  fallen  into  a  state  of  want  and  embarrasment, 
in  which  they  had  long  been  involved.  They  were  now  restored 
.to  competency  by  the  extraordinary  exertions  of  Mr.  Hillhouse  in 
their  behalf.  Having  consented  that  full  and  ample  justice  should 
be  done  the  State,  they  gratefully  tendered  to  Mr.  Hillhouse  the 
sum  of  six  thousand  dollars  for  his  own  personal  use,  and  begged 
him  to  accept  it." 

Such  a  testimonial  of  a  grateful  sense  of  obligation  on  their  part, 
deserves  to  be  remembered  for  their  sake  as  well  as  for  his.  But 
did  he  accept  their  offer  ?  He  did.  Yet  strange  as  it  may  seem, 
and  hardly  credible  in  these  days  of  plunder  and  official  venality, 


34  JAMES  HILLHOUSE. 

he  "  declined  retaining  a  donation  from  those  with  whom  he  dealt 
as  a  public  agent,  and  paid  the  six  thousand  dollars  into  the  treas- 
ury of  the  School  Fund."  This  "  delicate  sense  of  honor"  was 
actually  extant  less  than  thirty  years  ago,  in  a  man  who  had  been 
almost  twenty  years  a  member  of  Congress,  and  who  came  directly 
from  Washington  to  the  management  of  a  great  pecuniary  trust 
for  the  public. 

At  the  time  of  these  transactions,  Mr.  Granger,  the  associate 
of  Mr.  Phelps,  was  still  living,  after  a  long  career  of  public  ser- 
vice ;  and  his  sense  of  the  value  of  similar  services  rendered  in 
the  settlement  of  his  indebtedness  to  the  State  of  Connecticut,  was 
acknowledged  by  a  similar  testimonial  amounting  to  nearly  twenty- 
five  hundred  dollars.  At  the  same  time,  an  allowance  of  more 
than  fifteen  hundred  dollars  was  made  to  him,  for  the  same  reason, 
in  the  settlement  of  another  estate  largely  indebted  to  the  Fund — 
that  of  Arnold  Potter.  These  donations  were  also  passed  over  to 
the  School  Fund..  The  entire  amount  of  what  he  thus,  from  a 
high  sense  of  honor,  transferred  to  the  State,  was  only  less  than 
ten  thousand  dollars  ($9,982,02) — every  cent  of  it  fairly  his  own 
earning  by  extra-official  labor. 

The  extent  to  which  his  bodily  power  of  activity  and  endurance 
was  tasked  in  the  great  and  crowning  work  of  his  life,  cannot  be 
adequately  described  within  the  limits  of  this  brief  memoir.  At 
his  entrance  on  the  work,  he  was  already  passing  into  the  evening 
of  life,  when  most  men,  amid  the  lengthening  shadows,  think  rather 
of  retirement  and  repose  than  of  new  and  more  arduous  enter- 
prises. But  no  young  emigrant  making  his  way  into  the  wilder- 
ness to  lay  there  the  foundations  of  future  wealth,  ever  encoun- 
tered hardships,  fatigue  and  peril,  more  patiently  or  cheerfully 
than  he.  Unattended,  he  made  long  journeys  westward,  year  after 
year,  at  all  seasons,  and  with  all  sorts  of  hazards,  in  his  sulky,  at  the 
heels  of  the  fleet  and  hardy  little  mare  that  was  his  chief  locomotive 
power  for  the  first  six  or  eight  years  of  his  commissionership. 
Once  he  came  near  death  by  freezing  in  a  winter  drive  ;  twice  by 
fever  caught  in  miasmatic  regions  which  his  duty  required  him  to 
explore.  But  it  is  safe  to  say,  that  whether  using  the  utmost  speed 
of  his  mare  to  leave  at  a  safe  distance  behind  him  some  dogging 
ruffians  who  had  attempted  to  rob  him,  or  making  his  way  slowly 
through  the  woods  with  an  armed  Indian  silently  and  wistfully 
trotting  at  his  side,  or  arrested  as  a  criminal  at  the  instigation  of  a 
malicious  debtor  (which  was  once  the  case),  he  never  lost  for  an 
hour  his  courage  or  cheerful  good 'humor.     No  difficulties  of  the 


JAMES  UlLLHOUSB  35 

way  could  ever  turn  him  back.  The  story  is  told  that  "  after  half  a 
day's  solitary  traveling,  he  once  came  to  a  stream,  apparently  swol- 
len with  rain  to  an  unusual  depth.  It  was  necessary  to  cross  it 
or  be  frustrated  of  his  object,  besides  measuring  back  a  weary 
way.  He  undressed  himself,  strapped  his  trunk  of  clothes,  pa- 
pers, &c.,  on  the  top  of  his  sulky,  and  reached  the  opposite  bank 
with  no  other  inconvenience  than  an  unseasonable  bath."* 

What  Mr.  Hillhouse  did  for  the  School  Fund  in  the  fifteen  years 
of  his  administration,  was  in  many  respects  a  difFerent  work  from 
that  which  has  devolved  on  any  of  his  successors.  It  was  for  him  to 
extricate  the  Fund  from  the  embarrassed  and  imperilled  condition 
in  which  it  was  committed  to  his  care.  It  was  for  him  to  arrange 
and  institute  a  system  of  administration  ;  the  department  was  to  be 
all  but  created  by  his  constructive  genius.  He  labored  as  a  pio- 
neer,  preparing  the  way  in  which  others  were  to  follow.  His  im- 
mediate successor,  (Hon.  Seth  P.  Beers,)  who  had  been  for  two 
years  his  assistant,  entered  upon  the  work  when  the  age  of  rail- 
way  traveling  had  not  yet  begun,  and  when  the  superintend- 
ence of  the  School  Fund  was  still  attended  with  more  personal 
fatigue  and  hardship  than  belonged  to  any  other  office  in  the  ser- 
vice of  the  State.  But  the  second  Commissioner  entered  into  the 
labors  of  the  first;  and  it  is  no  disparagement  of  his  ability  or  of 
his  success,  to  say  that  his  work  during  the  twenty. four  years  of 
his  administration  was  easy  in  comparison  with  the  pioneer  work 
which  had  already  been  done.  In  those  years  of  pioneer  labor, 
Mr.  Hillhouse  had  not  merely  rescued  the  Fund  from  depreciation 
and  gradual  destruction,  and  restored  it  to  its  original  value.  By 
his  indefatigable  industry  and  skill  in  the  collection  of  debts,  and 
by  the  wisdom  of  his  reinvestments,  he  had  added  to  it  more  than 
half  a  million  of  dollars.  The  policy  which  he  inaugurated  was 
continued  by  his  successor,  at  the  close  of  whose  administration 
the  Fund  had  received  another  augmentation  of  three  hundred 
thousand  dollars, — and  though  the  capital  has  received  since  then 
•no  farther  augmentation,  the  investments  have  become  more  pro. 
ductive,  till  now  the  annual  income  is  seven  per  cent,  on  the  entire 
amount  of  the  Fund.  In  the  fifty-six  years  since  the  first  dividend 
was  made,  the  School  Fund  of  Connecticut  has  divided  among  the 
towns  and  school  societies  an  aggregate  amount  of  income  almost 
four  times  greater  than  the  capital  was  at  the  beginning.  The 
traditions  of  his  administration  still  give  to  the  office  a  dignity 
which  lifts  it  above  the  ordinary  sweep  of  party  revolution,  and 
*Dramas,  Discourses,  &c,,  by  James  A.  Hillhouse,  II.,  42-44,  51-54. 


86 


JAM£S  UlLLHOUSB. 


guards  it  against  being  made,  like  so  many  other  offices  of  trust 
and  honor,  a  reward  for  party  services.  If  that  magnificent  en- 
dowment yields  any  benefit  to  the  people  of  Connecticut  to-day 

if  it  diminishes  the  weight  of  their  public  burthens,  and  distributes 
to  all  parts  of  the  State,  year  by  year,  for  the  most  important  of 
all  public  interests,  a  greater  revenue  than  all  that  the  people  pay 
in  taxes  for  their  own  State  government — if  it  secures  a  free  school 
in  every  neighborhood  and  within  the  reach  of  every  family,  and 
leaves  hardly  a  native  adult  that  cannot  read  and  write — it  is  to 
him  more  than  to  any  other  man  that  the  debt  of  public  gratitude 
is  due.  Others  now  living,  who  need  not  be  named,  and  who  will 
not  be  forgotten  when  they  shall  have  been  gathered  to  the  dead, 
have  contributed  to  make  the  School  Fund  efficient  for  the  ends 
to  which  it  was  devoted,  have  taught  the  people  how  to  use  it,  have 
kept  it  from  becoming  a  disgrace  instead  of  a  glory  to  the  State ; 
but  the  Fund  itself  is  the  patrimony  which  his  heroic  labor  rescued 
and  enlarged,  and  which,  by  the  success  of  his  wise  and  faithful 
stewardship,  became  an  inheritance  forever  for  the  State  he  loved 
so  well. 

At  the  time  of  Mr.  Hillhouse's  retirement  from  the  Commission- 
ership  in  the  seventy-first  year  of  his  age,  the  citizens  of  New 
Haven  had  determined  on  attempting  the  construction  of  a  canal 
from  their  own  harbor  to  the  Connecticut  River  at  Northampton. 
He  had  taken  no  leading  part  either  in  the  consultations  and  dis- 
cussions which  preceded  that  determination,  or  in  the  application 
which  obtained  from  the  legislature  of  the  Slate  a  charter  with  a 
full  grant  of  necessary  powers  to  a  company  organized  for  the 
purpose.  But  his  townsmen,  from  the  day  in  which  he  led  the 
young  men  of  the  town  to  battle  in  defense  of  their  homes,  had 
been  accustomed  to  confide  implicitly  in  his  ability  to  accomplish 
whatever  he  might  be  induced  to  undertake.  Through  all  the  fifty 
years  of  his  participation  in  their  public  affairs,  there  had  hardly 
been  a  scheme  or  effort  of  local  improvement  in  which  he  had  not 
been  a  leader.  His  own  judgment,  confirmed  by  that  of  men 
whose  large  experience  and  acknowledged  wisdom  in  such  mat- 
ters gave  authority  to  their  opinions,  had  been  convinced  that  the  pro- 
posal was  practicable  and  would  open  for  the  commerce  of  New 
Haven  a  most  desirable  channel  of  communication  with  the  interior 
of  New  England.  He  yielded  to  the  solicitations  of  his  neighbors 
and  accepted  from  the  company  the  appointment  of  Superintend- 
ent. His  connection  with  the  work,  and  the  unfailing  zeal  and 
force  with  which  he  entered  into  it,  inspired  the  people  of  New 


JAMBS  HILLHOUSB.  37 

Haven,  and  of  other  towns  along  the  route,  with  much  of  his  own 
confidence  in  its  success.  Six  years  he  sustained  it  through  every 
discouragement,  and  then,  beginning  at  last  to  feel  that  it  was  time 
for  him  to  rest,  he  resigned  the  task  to  younger  hands.  The  con- 
struction of  that  canal  was  indeed  a  loss  to  the  Company  ;  but  the 
explanation  of  the  failure  is  chiefly  to  be  found  in  causes  that 
were  then  beyond  the  ken  of  human  sagacity.  Only  a  few  out 
of  the  many  works  of  that  sort  in  the  United  States  have  ever  re- 
paid to  the  proprietors  the  expense  of  construction.  Nobody  now 
thinks  of  making  a  canal  unless  it  be  something  like  a  ship  canal 
across  a  narrow  isthmus  between  oceans.  Five  and  thirty  years 
ago  nobody  thought  that  the  time  was  at  hand  when  railways  would 
be  constructed  for  the  convenience  of  commerce  along  the  shores 
of  navigable  waters,  when  the  whole  extent  of  the  Union,  from 
Maine  to  Louisiana,  would  be  overspread  with  a  network  of  iron 
tracks,  and  when  even  the  wildernesses  beyond  the  Mississippi 
would  begin  to  be  made  attractive  to  emigration,  by  the  construc- 
tion of  railways  over  orairies  hardly  yet  deserted  of  the  Indian 
and  the  buffalo. 

The  connection  of  Mr.  Hillhouse,  from  youth  to  old  age,  with 
all  the  progress  of  local  improvement  in  New  Haven,  has  already 
been  referred  to,  but  deserves  a  more  particular  notice.  One 
strong  indication  of  a  man's  character,  and  of  the  force  with  which 
he  has  acted  upon  his  fellow-men,  is  found,  sometimes  at  least,  in 
the  impression  which  he  has  left  upon  the  place  of  his  abode,  and 
the  extent  in  which  his  influence  has  incorporated  itself  with  the 
history  and  the  future  of  the  locality.  Since  Theophilus  Eaton 
and  John  Davenport,  with  others  from  the  parish  of  St.  Stephens, 
Coleman  Street,  in  London,  came  to  Quinnipiack  in  1638,  and 
laid  out  their  beautiful  town-plat  around  the  open  square  which 
they  reserved  for  their  public  buildings,  their  market-place,  and 
their  graves,  no  man  has  ever  done  so  much  by  personal  influence 
and  labor  for  the  beauty  of  New  Haven,  as  was  done  by  James 
Hillhouse.  He  had  a  part  in  the  subdivision  of  the  original  nine 
squares,  by  new  streets  parallel  to  the  old,  and  a  voice  in  giving 
both  to  the  old  streets  and  the  new  the  names  which  they  still 
bear.*     He  was  the  engineer  (probably  chairman  of  a  committee) 

*  A  part  of  the  ancient  town  was  incorporated  as  a  city,  at  a  winter  session  of 
the  legislature  in  1784,  Mr.  H.  being  fhen  a  representative.  At  the  first  city  elec- 
tion, Feb.,  1784  he  was  chosen  into  the  Common  Council.  The  streets  were 
named  by  vote  of  a  city  meeting,  Sept.  17  1784.  The  new  streets,  subdividing 
the  old  town-plat,  appear  to  have  been  opened  by  the  owners  of  the  property  at 
their  own  convenience  and  discretion,  according  to  some  plan  spontaneously 


38  JAMES  UILLHOXJSE. 

who  leveled  "  the  lower  green,"  as  the  lower  half  of  the  public 
square  was  called,  and  enclosed  the  whole  square  for  the  first  time, 
cutting  off  the  winding  cart  path  that  ran  diagonally  from  the 
northwestern  corner  to  the  southeastern.  He  brought  from  a  farm 
of  his  in  Meriden,  and  set  out,  partly  with  his  own  hands,  the  elms 
that  now  interlock  their  giant  arms  over  the  famous  colonnade  of 
Temple  street.  The  once  renowned  but  now  half  deserted  turn, 
pike  road  from  New  Haven  to  Hartford,  with  its  marvelous  recti- 
linearity,  was  not  indeed  laid  out  under  his  direction  (his  common 
sense  would  have  avoided  the  hills) ;  but  after  the  line  had  been 
determined,  and  the  work  imperfectly  constructed,  in  his  absence, 
the  completion  of  it  was  effected  by  his  executive  ability.*  He 
formed  and  carried  into  eftect  the  plan  of  the  New  Haven  Ceme- 
tery which  has  now  become  so  honored  with  historic  graves — his 
own  among  the  most  illustrious.  That  was  the  earliest  attempt  any- 
where  to  provide  a  public  cemetery  so  arranged  that  every  family 
might  have  its  own  family  burial  place  as  an  inalienable  posses- 
sion like  Abraham's  burial  place  at  Hebron.  The  records  of  the 
parish  of  which  he  was  a  member  testify  to  his  activity  and  zeal 
in  promoting  the  interests  of  that  ecclesiastical  society.  Five  suc- 
cessive pastors  of  the  church  in  which  he  made  his  early  vows, 
learned  to  value  his  generous  friendship ;  and  the  last  of  them,  hav- 
ing pronounced  the  eulogium  at  his  funeral  more  than  a  quarter 
of  a  century  ago,  is  permitted  now,  after  so  long  a  time,  to  com- 
mend him  to  the  grateful  remembrance  of  another  generation. 

One  office  Mr.  Hillhouse  retained  to  the  close  of  his  life.  For 
fifty  years  he  was  the  Treasurer  of  Yale  College.  In  all  his  cares 
and  labors  for  the  town,  for  the  State,  and  for  the  Union,  he  never 
ceased  to  care  affectionately  for  the  venerable  institution  in"  which 

agreed  upon.  Mr.  H.,  as  a  proprietor,  had  an  agency  in  the  opening  of  some  of 
those  streets ;  and  the  writer  of  this  note  remembers  to  have  heard  him  ex- 
press a  regi'et  that  he  did  not  insist  on  carrying  every  street  through  in  a  straight 
line  to  the  water,  viz :  to  the  harbor  in  one  direction,  and  from  Mill  Kiver  to  West 
River  in  the  other. 

*  In  connection  with  Mr.  Hillhouse' s  superintendence  of  the  Hartford  and  New 
Haven  turnpike  road,  a  story  is  extant,  which  if  it  is  only  a  myth,  is  nevertheless 
worth  repeating  in  a  Journal  of  Education.  The  tradition  is  that  while  Mr.  H. 
was  making  the  road,  he  was  visited  by  Gen.  Wade  Hampton,  of  South  Carolina, 
one  of  his  associates  in  the  House  of  Representatives.  Of  course  it  was  a  part  of 
«*  the  Sachem's"  hospitality  to  show  his  Southern  friend  the  great  work  that 
was  in  progress.  The  well  trained  oxen,  as  well  as  other  things  that  he  saw, 
were  much  admired  by  the  stranger.  "  See,"  said  he  to  the  negro  servant  who 
attended  him,  " how  those  oxen  work!  Tom!  they  know  more  than  you  do." 
"  Ah !  Mas'r,"  said  the  negro  in  reply,  "  Dem  ar  oxen  has  had  a  Yankee  bring- 
ing up."  .#■ 


JAMES  HILLHOUSE.  39 

he  had   been  educated.     A  special  service  which  he  rendered  to 
that  institution  at  the  time  of  its  greatest  peril,  entitles  him  to  be 
commemorated    among   its   greatest   benefactors.      The   college^ 
founded  by  the  clergy,  yet  patronized  and  aided  to  some  extent, 
in  its  early  days,  by  the  State,  had  always  been  under  the  govern- 
ment of  an   exclusively  clerical   corporation.     Very  naturally, 
some  degree  of  jealousy  had  long  existed  between  the  corporation 
of  the  college  and  certain  leading  influences  in  the  government  of 
the  State.     After  the  revolutionary  war,  the   college,  which  had 
shared  deeply  in  the  general  impoverishment  of  the  country,  had 
not  begun  to  share  in  the  return  of  prosperity  and  the  progress  of 
wealth.     Its  expectations  of  aid  from  the  State  were  met  with  va- 
rious demands  for  such  a  modification  of  its  charter  as  would  at 
least  divide  the  control  of  the  institution  between  the  clergy  and 
the  legislature  or  the  politicians.     In  some  quarters  there  were 
plans  on  foot  for  another  institution  to  be  governed  by  the  State. 
At  last,  in  the  years  1791-2,  these  difficulties  were  coming  to  a 
crisis.     A  legislative  committee  was  appointed  to  inquire  into  the 
affairs  of  the   institution.     Mr.   Hillhouse  came  home   from  his 
place  in  Congress  to  attend  the  corporation  in  their  conference  with 
that  committee,  which  was  supposed  to  be  not  favorable  to  the  then 
existing  constitution  of  the  college.     His  advice  to  the  corporation 
was  that  they  should  meet  the  committee  with  all  frankness  and 
confidence,  and  with  the  fullest  exposition  not  only  of  their  finan- 
cial affairs  and  necessities,  but  of  their  policy  in  the  management 
of  the  college,  and  of  their  hopes  and  wishes  for  the  future.     They 
adopted  his  advice,  and  the  result  was  that  the  committee  made  a 
report  highly  favorable  to  the  fidelity  and  ability  with  which  the 
college  had  been  governed  by  the  corporation.     Just  at  that  time 
Hamilton's  great  measure  for  the  assumption  by  the  Federal  gov- 
ernment of  the  debts  which  the  several  States  had  contracted  for 
the  common  cause  in  the  revolutionarj'-  struggle,  had  been  carried 
through  Congress.     The  State  of  Connecticut  had   laid   taxes  to 
•meet  the  interest,  and,  in  part,  the  principal  of  its  revolutionary 
debt ;  and  large  amounts  of  those  taxes,  payable  in  evidences  of 
that  debt,  were  at  that  moment  in  the  hands  of  collectors  through- 
out the  State.     If  those  amounts  were  paid  over  by  the  collectors 
to  the  treasury  of  the  State  they  would  cease  to  be,  what  in  reality 
they  were,  a  portion  of  that  revolutionary  debt  which  had  been 
assumed  by  the  Federal  government ;  or,  in  other  words,  the  State 
would  resume  and  discharge  a  portion  of  the  debt  which  had  just 
been  assumed   by  the  Union.     Mr.   Hillhouse  had  conceived  the 


40  JAMES  HILLHOUSB. 

idea  of  ceding  to  Yale  College  all  those  outstanding  taxes  which  were 
payable  in  evidences  of  the  revolutionary  debt.  It  was  at  his  advice 
that  the  Corporation  of  the  College  had  presented  the  plan  to  the 
legislature  in  a  memorial.  As  an  inducement  to  the  grant,  he  pro- 
posed, the  value  of  it  not  being  yet  ascertained,  that  one  half  of 
the  amount  which  the  college  might  realize  in  stock  of  the  United 
States  from  the  cession  of  those  evidences  of  the  State  debt,  should 
be  transferred  by  the  corporation  to  the  State,  for  the  use  and  ben- 
efit of  the  State  itself.  He  well  knew  that  there  were  strong  pre- 
judices to  be  avoided  or  subdued,  and  many  difficulties  to  be  over- 
come. Among  those  members  of  the  legislature  who  had  no  pre- 
judices against  the  college,  and  whose  intelligence  recognized  the 
importance  of  such  an  institution  to  the  State,  there  were  some  who 
had  no  faith  whatever  that  the  scheme  could  succeed.  But  with 
his  characteristic  tact  and  skill,  he  addressed  himself  directly  to 
another  class  of  members,  the  "substantial  farmers,"  who  are  even 
ito  this  day  the  ruling  class  in  Connecticut.  In  his  plain,  honest 
way,  he  availed  himself  of  the  great  confidence  which  men.  of  that 
class  always  had  in  him.  He  made  them  feel  that  the  college  was 
an  institution  in  which  the  whole  State  had  an  interest,  and  of 
which  the  State  ought  to  be  proud.  He  made  them  see  that  the 
State  as  well  as  the  college  had  a  pecuniary  interest  in  his  plan. 
His  perseverance  and  the  strength  of  his  personal  influence,  at  last 
prevailed  ;  and  the  measure  was  carried  chiefly  by  the  sympa- 
thies and  the  votes  of  that  very  class  who  had  no  literary  or  pro- 
fessional interest  in  the  college.  An  instinctive  confidence  in  the 
plain  good  sense  and  the  public  spirit  of  the  people,  was  charac- 
teristic of  Mr.  Hillhouse,  and  was  one  reason  why  the  people 
always  had  confidence  in  him  and  were  ready  to  follow  him. 

At  the  same  time  a  change  in  the  charter  of  the  college  was 
efiected  partly,  at  least,  by  his  influence.  The  legislature  was 
induced  to  content  itself  with  proposing,  and  the  corporation  was 
persuaded  to  accept,  a  modification  by  which,  while  the  ten  cleri- 
cal "  Fellows"  who  represent  the  original  founders  were  to  retain 
the  right  of  filling  their  own  vacancies  in  perpetual  succession, 
the  Governor,  Lieutenant-Governor,  and  six  senior  Assistants  (now 
Senators)  of  the  State  government  for  the  time  being,  were  to  be 
also  members  of  the  Corporation.  By  this  arrangement  many 
ancient  jealousies  were  removed ;  and  Yale  College  was  not  indeed 
subjected  to  the  State,  to  be  mixed  up  in  all  the  strifes  of  politics, 
but  placed  in  a  natura;l  and  just  connection  with  the  civil  govern- 
ment of  the  commonwealth.     In  the  language  of  President  Stiles, 


JAMES  HnXHOUSB.  41 

"  Moses  and  Aaron  were  united."  Never,  it  is  believed,  has  there 
been  any  collision  or  friction  in  the  working  of  this  arrangement. 
The  only  thing  to  be  regretted  is  that  of  late  years  the  contempti- 
ble  principle  of  "rotation  in  office,"  superseding  the  old  principle 
of  "  steady  habits,"  has  too  much  deprived  the  Corporation  of  the  dig. 
nity  and  strength  which  it  ought  to  receive  from  its  alliance  with 
the  State.  Senators  who  have  been  elevated  to  office  because  it 
was  their  turn,  and  who  are  sure  to  be  displaced  next  year  because 
they  will  have  had  their  day  of  honor,  if  they  happen  to  be  desig. 
nated  by  lot  as  "  Senior  Senators,"  can  hardly  be  expected  to  take 
much  interest  in  the  one  meeting  of  the  Corporation  which  takes 
plnce  each  year. 

The  memorable  "  Act  for  enlarging  the  powers  and  increasing 
the  funds  of  Yale  College,"  saved  the  institution.  It  brought  to 
the  treasury  a  net  amount  of  about  forty  thousand  dollars.  Out 
'of  that  sum,  administered  with  exemplary  economy,  building 
after  building,  arranged  according  to  a  plan  which  Mr.  Hillhouse 
and  the  artist  Trumbull  had  devised,  was  added  to  the  line  of  col- 
lege edifices.  Under  the  administration  of  President  D wight, 
which  began  three  years  after  the  passage  of  that  act,  the  course  of 
studies,  the  system  of  government,  and  the  provisions  and  arrange- 
ments for  instruction,  were  gradually  but  rapidly  modified  to  meet  the 
exigencies  of  the  times.  The  increased  resort  of  students  was 
more  than  parallel  with  the  increase  of  accommodations.  In  process 
of  time,  as  the  poverty  of  the  institution,  in  relation  to  the  work  it  had 
to  do,  was  made  the  more  conspicuous  by  its  growing  usefulness  and 
its  spreading  renown,  friends  and  benefactors  began  to  appear, 
whose  donations  or  legacies  still  kept  it  from  sinking.  Its  Alumni 
in  all  parts  of  the  Union,  came  to  its  aid.  New  departments  of 
instruction  in  the  learned  professions  were  organized,  and  to  some 
extent  endowed  ;  and  before  Mr.  Flillhouse  ceased  to  be  treasurer, . 
the  college  became,  in  fact,  a  university  though  not  affecting  the 
grandeur  of  so  lofty  a  name. 

It  is  not  strange  then,  that  when,  in  his  old  age,  he  had  relin- 
quished  all  other  offices  and  public  employments,  and  had  retired 
into  the  bosom  of  his  family,  where  he  was  preparing  himself  for 
his  last  repose,  he  still  retained  his  official  connection  with  the  col- 
lege. On  the  18th  of  December,  1832,  the  sudden  death  of  the 
Assistant  Treasurer,  Stephen  Twining,  Esq.,  threw  upon  him  an 
unusual  and  urgent  pressure  of  business,  in  preparation  for  the 
Prudential  Committee  of  the  Corporation.  On  the  29th  of  Decem- 
ber, he  attended  the   meeting  of  that   Committee.     About  noon, 


42  JAMES  HILLHOUSE. 

after  a  session  of  several  hours,  he  returned  to  his  house,  as  he  had 
gone  out,  hale,  erect,  cheerful,  with  no  weakness  in  his  step  and  no 
dimness  in  his  eye.  He  sat  down  with  the  family,  and  while  con- 
versing  with  them,  began  to  open  the  letters  which  had  come  to  hand 
that  morning.  As  he  was  reading  a  letter  on  college  business,  he  rose 
from  his  chair,  and  without  saying  anything,  went  into  his  bed- 
room. Only  a  moment  had  passed  when  his  son,  having  occasion 
to  speak  to  him,  followed  him.  But  the  old  man  was  asleep.  He 
had  lain  down  quietly  upon  his  bed,  and  a  gentle  touch  from 
some  kind  angel  had  released  him  from  his  labors. 

Those  who  have  a  personal  remembrance  of  Mr.  Hillhouse  are 
growing  few.  But  of  the  vividness  with  which  his  form  and  looks 
and  character  rise  before  their  minds  at  the  mention  of  his  name, 
after  the  lapse  of  so  many  years  since  he  was  carried  to  his  grave, 
it  is  difficult  to  give  a  just  impression.  This  brief  narrative  of 
hist  long  life,  and  of  his  many  public  services,  cannot  convey  to 
those  who  never  saw  him,  any  adequate  notion  of  what  he  was  • 
still  less  can  the  writer  hope  to  set  before  them  by  any  analysis,  or  to 
portray  by  any  art  of  word-painting,  the  remarkable  and  memora- 
ble peculiarities  of  the  man. 

Physically,  as  well  as  in  his  characteristic  moral  and  mental 
constitution,  he  was  cast  in  a  heroic  mold.  Without  any  extraor- 
dinary  personal  beauty — without  any  statuesque  symmetry  or  fin- 
ish of  figure  and  features — bis  face  and  person  were  such  that  no 
stranger  could  look  upon  him  for  a  moment  without  looking  again  and 
saying  to  himself,  'That  is  no  ordinary  jnan.'  Tall,  long-limbed, 
with  high  cheek-bones,  swarthy,  lithe  in  motion,  lightness  in  his  step, 
and  strength  and  freedom  in  his  stride,  he  seemed  a  little  like  some 
Indian  Chief  of  poetry  or  romance — the  Outalissi  of  Campbell's 
Gertrude  of  Wyoming — the  Massasoit  or  King  Philip  of  our  early 
history  as  fancy  pictures  them — ^so  much  so  that  with  a  kind  of 
affectionate  respect  he  was  sometimes  called  "  the  Sachem." 

It  has  already  been  said  that  his  genius  and  the  constitutional 
elements  of  his  character  were  such  as  might  have  achieved  dis- 
tinction in  a  military  career.  The  blood  of  the  old  Pequot-queller, 
John  Mason,  and  of  the  heroic  defenders  in  the  siege  of  Derry  was 
mingled  in  his  veins  ;  and  it  is  safe  to  say  that  nobody  ever  saw  him 
frightened  or  disconcerted.  But  mere  courage  qualifies  no  man  to 
be  a  leader.  He  had  that  sort  of  natural  leadership  among  his  equals ; 
that  special  faculty  of  influence  over  men,  that  power  of  winning 
their  full  confidence  and  of  making  them  willing  to  follow  where 


JAMES  niLLHOUSE.  43 

he  led,  which  is  given  only  in  nature's  patent  of  nobility.  He 
had  an  intuitive  knowledge  of  men,  whoever  they  were  with  whom 
he  had  to  do  : — without  any  suspiciousness  in  his  nature,  or  any 
slowness  in  yielding  his  confidence,  he  was  rarely  deceived  in 
those  whom  he  trusted.  His  prompt  discernment  of  exigencies, 
and  the  exhaustless  fertility  of  his  resources,  gave  him  an  instan- 
taneous quickness  of  adaptation  to  whatever  emergency.  It  was 
by  this  military  combination  of  qualities  in  his  mental  constitution 
and  development,  that  he  accomplished  so  much  for  the  town  he 
lived  in,  for  his  native  State,  and  for  his  country. 

Had  he  been  a  selfish  man — had  his  nature  lacked  the  glow 
and  charm  of  living  sympathies — the  development  and  organiza- 
tion of  his  entire  character  would  have  differed  from  what  it  was. 
His  spontaneous  and  genial  affectionateness,  not  only  in  his  family 
but  in  every  relation — his  frank  heartiness  in  all  intercourse  with 
friends  and  neighbors — his  ready  sensibility  to  whatsoever  things 
are  true  or  honest,  or  just,  or  pure,  or  lovely  or  of  good  report — 
in  a  word,  the  generosity  of  his  nature,  even  more  than  the  un- 
doubted superiority  of  his  intellectual  powers,  commanded  the  full 
confidence  of  all  who  had  to  do  with  him  and  of  all  who  knew  him. 
What  was  admired  and  honored  in  James  Hillhouse  was,  not  the 
man's  extraordinary  ability- — not  his  eloquence  or  his  wit — not  the 
depth  and  reach  of  his  learning,  or  the  acutenessand  power  of  his 
logic, — ^but  the  man  himself.  It  was  his  integrity,  in  the  original 
and  largest  sense  of  that  word — the  wholeness  of  his  manly  nature 
with  all  manly  affections  and  sympathies  as  well  as  manly  powers, 
that  commanded  homage.  In  his  earlier  years,  before  he  had 
given  himself  up  entirely  to  public  affairs,  he  was  rising  to  enii- 
nence  as  an  advocate,  arguing  cases  with  distinguished  success 
before  the  highest  tribunals ;  and  sometimes  when  Hamilton  and 
Burr,  with  the  splendor  and  authority  of  the  one  and  the  unscru- 
pulous  genius  and  cunning  of  the  other,  were  both  arrayed  against 
him..  He  could  not  undertake  a  cause  whhout  first  gaining  in  his 
own  mind  an  assurance  of  its  justice ;  and  when  he  came  to  the 
argument,  with  his  most  unaffected  honesty  and  earnestness  in 
every  word  and  look,  that  assurance  of  his  being  in  the  right  com- 
municated  itself  to  those  who  heard  him.  The  nature  of  the  con- 
fidence  which  his  fellow-citizens  had  in  him  may  be  illustrated  by 
a  story  that  is  still  repeated  in  New  Haven,  and  is  not  without  a 
moral.  Long  ago,  when  parties  had  hardly  been  organized  in 
Connecticut,  it  happened  that  a  leading  man  whose  name  is  not 
essential  to  the  point  of  the  story,  but  of  whom  we  may  say  that 


44  JAMES  HILLHOUSE. 

he  had  aspirations  as  well  as  opinions,  went  out  on  some  occasion 
from  New  Haven  into  one  of  the  neighboring  towns  to  make  a  po. 
litical  speech.  The  school-house,  in  which  the  orator  held  forth, 
was  filled  with  plain  but  thinking  farmers,  who  gave  a  silent  atten- 
tion while  he  tried  to  show  them  with  plausible  arguments  and  at 
great  length,  how  much  they  were  wronged  by  the  then  existing 
administration  of  their  public  affairs.     When  he  had  finished,  one 

of  his  hearers  rose  and  gave  him  this  conclusive  reply  :  "  Mr. ^ 

you  are  a  lamed  man,  and  you  know  a  great  deal  more  than  we 
do  ;  but  we  know  one  thing,  and  that  is  that  Jemmy  Hillhouse  is 
an  honester  man  than  you  be." 

The  combination  of  simplicity  and  dignity  in  Mr.  Hillhouse 
was  altogether  unique.  The  simplicity  and  the  dignity  being 
alike  unaffected,  were  not  merely  combined  ;  they  were  one  and 
the  same  thing.  They  were  the  perfectly  unconscious  manifesta- 
tion  of  a  strong  and  self-reliant  mind,  rich  with  various  knowledge 
and  the  shrewdest  common  sense,  controled  by  the  highest  moral 
principles,  and  alive  with  every  manly  affection  and  every  honora- 
ble sensibility.  With  what  statesmanlike  propriety  and  force  of 
expression,  and  with  what  command  of  classical  English,  he  could 
discuss  high  questions  of  government,  is  sufficiently  shown  on  some 
of  the  foregoing  pages  by  extracts  from  the  Congressional  debates  ; 
yet  his  speaking  on  all  occasions  was  characterised  by  that  ancient 
New  England  pronunciation  which  was  simply  the  pure  and 
true  pronunciation  of  our  mother  tongue  as  it  was  before  the  reign 
of  Charles  II.,  but  which  is  now  so  rarely  heard  from  educated 
persons  or  in  connection  with  refinement  of  thought  and  man- 
ners. His  ordinary  colloquial  discourse,  often  humorous,  often 
full  of  the  most  mteresting  personal  reminiscences,  always  instruc- 
tive, was  enriched  with  quaint  New  England  idioms  and  homely 
Connecticut  proverbs.  In  all  this  there  was  no  lack  of  dignity, 
for  his  way  of  speaking  was  simply  antique,  not  vulgar.  His  peo- 
nunciation  was  such  as  Milton  used,  and  Hampden  ;  and  even 
those  Doric  colloquialisms  of  his  were,  for  the  most  part,  such  as 
Brewster  and  Winthrop,  Haynes  and  Eaton,  might  have  brought 
with  them  from  England.  Yet  it  would  be  an  injustice  to  his 
memory  if  the  reader  should  think  of  him  as  using  purposely  the 
antique  style  in  anything,  or  imagine  his  old  age  as  decorated  with 
the  wig  and  the  shoe  buckles  which  old  men  wore  when  he  was 
young.  As  he  did  not  affect  the  antique  in  speech,  he  was  equally 
above  all  affectation  of  the  antique  in  costume.     He  was  not  per- 


JAMES  HILLHOUSE  45 

forming  a  part  ia  a  play,  and  had  therefore  no  occasion  to  dress  in 
character.  Doubtless  he  wore  knee-buckles  and  powdered  hair 
when  he  was  young ;  but  in  his  venerable  age,  when  buckles  and 
powder  had  gone  out  of  fashion,  they  could  have  added  nothing  to 
his  dignity.  Those  little  archaisms  of  dress  are  sometimes  grace- 
ful in  an  old  man,  and  dignified  ;  but  they  would  hardly  have  befit- 
ted  him.  He  was  as  dignified  with  his  coat  off  and  with  a 
scythe  in  his  hands,  leading  the  mowers  across  the  field,  and  cut- 
ting the  widest  swarth  of  all,  as  when  he  stood  conspicuous  and 
honored  in  the  Senate,  or  on  a  Sabbath  morning  walked  to  the 
house  of  prayer  with  patriarchal  grace,  beneath  the  stately  elms 
which  his  own  hands  had  planted.  Everybody  in  his  presence 
•  felt  his  dignity ;  but  the  dignity  was  in  the  man,  not  in  the  man- 
ner  His  dignity  was  not  put  on,  and  could  not  be  put  off.  It  was 
nothing  else  than  his  transparent  simplicity,  continually  revealing 
an  unaffected  nobleness  of  soul. 

None  will  suppose  that  in  a  public  career  so  long  as  his,  and 
so  full  of  the  most  various  activity,  and  with  so  much  independence 
and  resoluteness  of  mind,  he  encountered  no  unfriendly  opposition 
and  no  reproach  from  "evil  tongues."  With  all  the  traits  that 
made  him  popular,  with  all  his  tact  in  guiding  and  influencing 
men,  and  with  all  the  kindliness  of  his  disposition,  he  was  still  just 
the  man  to  encounter,  now  and  then,  some  unexpected  and  violent 
hostility.  Nor  was  he  by  nature  "slow  to  wrath."  He  was  so 
constituted  that  he  had  a  quick  and  impetuous  sensibility  to  injury 
and  especially  to  insult.  Yet  his  religious  principles  and  habits 
suffered  him  to  harbor  no  resentment.  As  a  Christian  man  he  had 
learned  to  restrain  his  vindictive  feelings,  to  bear  injury  with  pa- 
tience, and  to  repel  insult  and  make  it  contemptible  by  the  dignity 
and  magnanimity  of  meekness. 

This  last  mentioned  feature  in  his  character  might  be  referred 
in  part  to  his  habitual  regard  for  other  interests  than  his  own.  A& 
he  was  not  living  for  himself  it  was  the  easier  for  him  to  be  mag- 
nanimous under  any  personal  wrong.  Not  only  so,  but  the  large- 
ness of  the  plan  on  which  he  lived,  helped  to  lift  him  above  the 
depression  of  whatever  personal  disappointments  and  sorrows  were 
in  his  lot,  and  to  illuminate  the  entire  sphere  of  his  activity  and 
his  enjoyments.  In  words  that  were  spoken  at  his  burial,  "  He 
aimed  at  the  public  good.  He  lived  for  his  country.  Thus  his 
activity  was  activity  freed  from  the  corrosion  of  selfishness,  and 
in  all  his  toil  there  was  a  consciousness  of  noble  purposes  which 


46  JlMiJS  HILLHOUSE. 

lightened  every  labor,  and  even  took  away  froni  disappointment 
the  power  to  vex  him.  Thus  his  soul  was  expanded  into  more 
colossal  dimensions,  his  being,  as  it  were,  spread  out  and  extended. 
Tiiere  was  more  of  existence  in  a  day  of  his  life  than  there  would 
be  in  centuries  of  some  men's  living.  His  influence,  his  volun. 
tary  influence  to  do  good,  being  thus  extended,  he  lived  with  a  sort 
of  ubiquity,  wherever  that  influence  was  feit, — happy  in  the  con. 
sciousnessof  living  to  good  purpose.  And  for  all  this  he  was  none 
tiie  less  happy — he  was  far  more  happy — in  his  family,  and  in  all 
the  relations  of  private  and  personal  friendship.  The  way  to  en. 
joy  home  with  the  highest  zest,  the  way  to  have  the  fireside  bright 
with  the  most  quiet,  heartfelt  happiness,  is  to  be  active  even  to 
weariness,  and  to  come  home  for  refreshment  and  repose.  The 
way  to  give  new  vigor  and  delight  to  all  the  pulses  of  domestic 
love  and  private  friemdship,  is  to  enlarge  the  soul  and  prove  it  kin- 
dred to  higher  orders  of  existence  by  the  culture  of  large  and  gen- 
erous  affections." 


^HIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  r. 

STAMPED  BE™  w'^S'"  DATE 


282020 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALirORKIA  LIBRARY 


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